Cell phone owners could face TV licence fees (TheLocal)

[Drew Wilson]

Swedish TV licensing body Radiotjänst has indicated that cell phone users may soon face licence fees as technological advances bring television to the mobile.

Responding to a query from a concerned citizen, the agency said it would not rule out obliging cell phone users to pay a TV licence fee if public service television providers make all their programmes available for mobile phone viewing.

"All equipment displaying a channel's entire output requires the payment of a television licence," Radiotjänst spokeswoman Anna Pettersson told newspaper Dagens Nyheter.

Pettersson added that mobile phones did not yet fall into this category, as only a selection of the public television network's programmes were currently available for handset viewing.

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I guess in Sweden, it's official. If you own a cell phone, you are an "enemy of copyright" (MPAA's words, not mine)

[mountain_rage]

This is more a public broadcast issue than a copyright one. The broadcasters must have some kind of government backing for local stations to keep local production strong, or just due to years of lobbying. But it really should be waved for devices other than tv. Just make it mandatory on its main channel, since people are already paying for it don't charge them twice.