had compared the costs of property taxes and TV licence fee. Both
forms of fees, however, are imposed on separate utilities and are
subject to different considerations. Thus, to make a direct comparison
between the two would not be meaningful.
The TV licence fee of $110 has remained unchanged since Jan 1, 1994.
It is among the lowest in the world, even as the cost of producing
Public Service Broadcast (PSB) programmes has risen over the years,
and there are more free-to-air (FTA) TV channels today for consumers
to enjoy.
The TV licence fee funds the production of about 3,000 hours of PSB
programmes annually on FTA TV channels. These programmes play a
critical role in fostering positive social values and creating strong
community bonds. They include minority language programmes, culture,
information, current affairs, drama, local sports and children's
programmes.
PSB programmes have captured international attention for their quality
and range. Examples include popular series such as Little Nyonya; My
World My Blog, a winner at this year's New York Festivals for Best
Docudrama (Gold) and Best Direction (Silver); R.E.M., the kids drama
series that won the Best Children's Programme (2008 Asian TV Awards);
Vizhigal Sr 2, the popular Tamil series about taboos in the Indian
community; Guru Parvai, another popular Tamil series about the
relationship between students and teachers in the 1980s; Klinik Kita,
a health series that won an award at the United States International
Film & Video Festival 2008; and 1988 Segaris Sinar, a Malay drama
about boys growing up in an orphanage.
These PSB programmes - which received favourable viewership ratings
when on-air - also garnered 16 nominations at the Asian TV Awards in
December last year.
MDA understands that some lower-income families may face difficulties
in paying their licence fee and we are prepared to give special
considerations, such as deferred or instalment payment schemes on a
case-by-case basis.
Families requiring assistance on their TV licence fee payments can
send their request via the MDA Online feedback form at
https://mdaonline. mda.gov.sg
Pam Hu (Ms)
Director, Customer & Licensing Services
Media Development Authority
===========================================
STTeam Administrator
TV licence fee among world's lowest
Today, 03:37 AM
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WE REFER to Mr Lee Kwun Lam's letter last Friday, 'Lopsided?'. Mr Lee
had compared the costs of property taxes and TV licence fee. Both
forms of fees, however, are imposed on separate utilities and are
subject to different considerations. Thus, to make a direct comparison
between the two would not be meaningful.
Full Story
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Procrusteans
Today, 07:24 AM
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Collecting $110 per year for watching TV is equilivant to daylight robbery!
Among world's lowest ? Compared to which countries? How many countries
in the world collecting `TV Licence Fees'?
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.......... ...
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Singaporexyz
Today, 09:03 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ms Hu,
Since we are paying $100 per year for the TV license fee, that why is
it still called free-to-air (FTA)? It is actually not free because we
are paying to watch the channels.
The actual free-to-air I will say only for those people in Johor who
are watching our channels because they do not need to pay the TV
license fee.
Can Ms Hu care to explain?
Singaporexyz
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techsavy
Today, 09:34 AM
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Please enlist SPH's help to see every year, how many wrote in to ask
why they have to pay the license fee. Please also let us know how many
feedbacks MDA receive every year. Counting the rest who didn't write
in to enquire, I'm quite sure people have been wondering all these
years, what exactly are they paying for.
You're moving off tangent to answer by comparing fees. Any comparison
is hardly like-for-like, and in this case, it's far from
apple-to-apple. The question is really, what's this fee for? We're now
living in the year 2009, Is it still valid for the people to be paying
this fee.
Every letter that got published on the TV licensing, the answer is
always different. I'm rather surprised the answer this time around is
for producing Channel 8 shows like "Little Nyonya". Little Nyonya was
not a commercial-free show. As a matter of fact, it's interjected with
the usual load of advertisements. Why MDA is paying for the show is
unfathomable.
TV licensing started in an era where there were only a few miserable
FTA channels, advertisements were not common, advertisement revenue
was not much, and when the public was not what it is today. Fast
forward, Cable and Pay-TV has been around for decades and Mediacorp
charges high premium for advertisement air time. People no longer had
only FTA channels to watch any more. MDA needs to move on, and
seriously think about the practice of collecting TV licenses. This
method of collecting fees to run MDA needs to be re-looked. If it's a
community effort MDA is doing, or for minority, please look towards
the government for such funding.
It's amazing that MDA is collecting all these monies and yet no effort
is spent on driving Singapore towards rolling out HD like the way it's
done in countries of comparable economy status as Singapore. MDA can
perhaps enlighten the public by opening up its books and tell the
public how they spent on the so-called TV license fees. And for the
shows cited, please describe how much the production costs of the
shows, how much advertisement revenue is collected, and how much MDA
paid for it?
techsavy
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lowcm
Today, 09:36 AM
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Do you really need a TV licence to use a TV? It does to MDA - with its
money-no-enough policy. Might as well (relevant authorities)introduce
licences for other household products, eh?
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jochia77
Today, 10:00 AM
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I absolutely agree with all of you (and many more Singaporeans) asking
why on earth are we paying for TV license? I have lived in Korea, Hong
Kong, and the Indian subcontinent, and there is no such thing as
paying the government for TV license.
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weischin
Today, 10:10 AM
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Perhaps their next reply will be to discourage you from watching TV
altogether... just like the cig. Reduce myopics in children too.
Hmm... good excuse to increase the tv tax even higher?
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TimeForChange
Today, 10:26 AM
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I have several questions, but seeing the govt usually does not answer
online questions, I doubt they will be answered by the authorities.
But like rhetorics, perhaps these questions don't need answers per se,
either.
Like many posters, I wonder, why indeed DO we have to pay for a TV
license? As many have mentioned, there are many countries that does
not require such a payment. We seem to be taxed on many things in this
country - and some does not seem reasonable in the least. As I've
mentioned in another post previously, an example is our Income Tax,
and GST - why are we being taxed for what we earn, and after that, we
are also being taxed for what we use from what we have left after
that? Also, since MDA claims to have the lowest license fee in the
world, I would like to know, exactly what are these other countries
that do charge a similar fee - name them, and what do they use the
money for? It's not enough to judge the validity of a tax by amount,
but rather what the amount is used for, in serving the country as a
whole.
TV programs such as Ch5, Ch8, etc. ARE called free-to-air, and if I
recalled correctly, when a similar issue was brought up previously
(years ago), MDA had claimed that our money is NOT used to subsidize
programs made by TCS, since after all, they are a profit making
company. Why is it that the "public service broadcasts" mentioned all
fall within the drama, comedy, variety program types? Aren't these
entertainment programs rather than 'public service broadcasts"? I
would expect that public service broadcast refers to messages that has
a beneficial effect on society as a whole - such as Anti-Dengue,
Anti-Drug Abuse ads, Crimewatch, Event notifications such as WDA
(workforce development agency) career fairs, information on getting
social welfare and financial assistance, advise or outlet for teens,
teenage pregnancies, depressives, etc. As it stands, we are seeing
little of such programs, things that, especially for those neglected
on the lower rungs of society, would appreciate a lot more than your
(frankly speaking) average-quality ha-ha-ha shows; award winning or
not.
Is it just me, or has the government lost touch with what is meant by
Public Service? Or has it become just that - a form of entertainment
to them?
TimeForChange
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charmaine1980
Today, 11:03 AM
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For the $110 we are paying, alot of the shows are just crap with that
pathetic few channels, especially for TCS 8.
It's not that I do not support our own TCS, but at least there has to
be some credible standards to speak of. How many good dramas have they
aired before the Little Nonya? Most of the local variety shows on that
channels also lack creativity and copycats of those from Taiwan.
Rather disappointing.
Ooops...Sori I deviated a bit from the main topic.
In other countries that I've been to and worked, I don't remember
having to pay TV license fees. And I have to say there are alot more
interesting channles they have. It's even better than our Cable TV we
pay so much for.
Seriously, I think MDA should review on this matter. In addition,
since Ms Hu proclaims that it is one of the lowest in the world, we
would like to know the comparisons are pertaining to which countries?
Dubai? US?
How many channels they have and how many we have? Our number of
channels can be counted with less than 10 fingers.
I guess the question is...for the $110 we are paying, is it really
value for our money? If not for the sake of watching news and
Channelnewsasia, I won't even mind not subscribing. With the pathetic
few channels, there's not even channel surfing to speak of. Click 6
times and your are back to the channel again. *yawn*
I'll rather go online to watch what I want. It's more up-to-date, more
variety, no commercials and it's free.
<<MDA understands that some lower-income families may face
difficulties in paying their licence fee and we are prepared to give
special considerations, such as deferred or instalment payment schemes
on a case-by-case basis.>>
It should be free or half price for lower-income families! Is MDA
really that desperate for Revenue, with the term Public Service in
mind?
charmaine1980
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bumibumi
Today, 11:09 AM
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TV licence fee among world's lowest
EVEN IF it the lowest in the world, it DOES NOT justify the need to pay.
Get the advertisers to pay.
We are like paying S$110 per year to watch countless advertisements
while those in JB and Batam (may be?) got to watch for free. Why not
get SCV to pay since many of us got to pay SCV, and if SCV says they
bundle in the "fleece to air" channels, they should pay a lump sum to
the MDA.
I maintain that having a TV set at home does not necessarily mean I
watch those channels that are fleecing us. I am having a large CRT /
projection device to watch my collections of DVD.
Please stop collecting TV license fees
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