There's a discussion going on within the German TV tax empire. Currently, the rate is set for each household for roughly 18 Euro. This gives you ZDF, ARD, the public radio system, and fifteen-odd state networks under ARD.
The discussion centers on increasing costs under ARD's management and operations center. What is generally said is that by 2020.....ARD says that there'll have to be roughly 100 Euro more a year in the mix....figure this out to another eight Euro on top of the present rate.
Presently, there's an expense account of almost a billion Euro involved in this state-run media empire. It's a fair amount of money....at least most Germans believe that.
The public reaction? Nothing much yet because the rate suggestion has barely been discussed in public and it'll be three years before it has to be enacted upon. Generally, Germans grumble over the current rate and there is declining viewership of the public TV situation among the younger population.
German public TV got all peppy around 2009 and felt a new effort to get younger viewers was necessary. So, they invented another network....NEO. NEO was designed originally to be for the 15-to-25 year old group, and was supposed to have more comedies, more US and UK related shows, and relate to younger audiences. Over the first two or three years....NEO was mostly a marginal network with no real public attention. I've noticed in the past year or two that NEO has redefined their viewership to being the 18-to-45 year old group. I guess they've given up on the youth angle and just keeping the network going as best as possible.
At some point, I suspect the board of governors will sit and ask what the public desires, and get a shock as people confirm that they just aren't watching enough public TV to make it worth near thirty Euro a month on taxation.
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