France targets TV cheats
Pay TV database scuppers license dodging
In draft legislation due to go before Parliament Thursday -- and which stunned broadcasting execs who read about it for the first time in the papers -- the tax office wants to track down TV license fee dodgers by consulting pay TV subscriber bases.
The TV license costs each household 116.5 euros ($134) annually. But the government reckons it could recoup up to $69 million in lost revenue by nailing some of the estimated 2 million license cheats, 500,000 of whom are believed to subscribe to cable or satellite TV.
The extra cash is expected to cover the cost of a 3% increase in the pubcasters' 2004 budgets, announced by Culture Minister Jean Jacques Aillagon on Thursday. Aillagon also announced that the overall culture budget will rise 5.8% next year to nearly $3 billion, with a 4.8% hike for cinema and TV production to $611 million (including $546 million from the industry's self-financing film fund).
Pay TV group Canal Plus Group said it considered the move legally contestable and incompatible with data protection measures. Rival pay TV platform TPS made no statement.
