Focus, the German news magazine, brought up this story today....over German public TV. It's not one that ARD or ZDF would openly discuss, for obvious reasons.
There's a quiet debate going on....about potentially raising the monthly TV-tax (17.50 Euro per month, per household). The current fee is locked into place until 2020, and there is some suggestion that the German states (16 of them) aren't pleased about increasing the monthly fee.
What the German states want....are savings passed by the networks, and to avoid any real discussion over increasing the tax.
All of this leads to the term regularly used now (particularly by ARD).....austerity. But just about every time that austerity is mentioned, there's an accompanying remark to suggest that quality is going to suffer.
As Focus points out....all this cost saving talk ought to lead to a savings of 950-odd million Euro being saved by 2028 (a decade into the future).
The odds of the monthly fee increasing in 2021? Everyone is careful now not to suggest much. My humble guess is that the cuts being discussed will help to limit the fee increase, but this is probably going to go up to around 18 Euro a month, and last through 2028, where another fee episode will occur and drag them over the 20 Euro point by then.
What the states want to avoid is getting this TV-tax deal into a top ten public topics, and having people openly ask how money is being spent. For any of the political parties to pick this up and support the tax....it puts them into a tough public position for votes in regional voting.
As for the cost discussion? On ARD and ZDF, it's just about forbidden to discuss what programs cost, the salary structure, or the necessity for secondary public TV networks. Both ARD and ZDF run major news media groups, which to me....has never made a lot of sense why two major organizations need to exist. The same is true with sports between the two.
As for this being a top ten issue? No. Most Germans will tell you this will rate way beyond their top one-hundred problems in life. But if you are between 18 and 25 years old, and rarely ever watching German public TV....then your thrill factor of giving 17.50 Euro a month to the TV tax is pretty maxed out.
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