ARD, ZDF, Deutschlandradio: Beitragsservice fights against "freeloaders"

Planned fee increase, stricter controls, more staff

Contribution evaders in Germany could soon have to dig deeper into their pockets. The Beitragsservice plans to increase the fees and hire more staff to combat the fee dodgers.

ARD, ZDF and Deutschlandradio are planning to significantly increase the pressure on fee evaders. The plans include a fee increase, stricter controls and more staff. The public broadcasters are reacting to a loss of revenue in the millions due to the high number of people who do not pay the monthly fee.

In 2022, the fee will increase by 86 cents to 18.36 euros per month. The Beitragsservice, the collection agency for the public broadcasters, already collects 1.7 billion euros less per year than it would if everyone paid. The reason for this is that too many people do not pay.

The Beitragsservice plans to hire an additional 55 employees to combat the "freeloaders". In the future, more households will be checked to see if they are actually paying the fee. In addition, the contribution service wants to optimise its processes and identify fee dodgers more quickly. In this way, the service aims to recover millions in lost revenue.

However, the fee increase and the stricter controls are likely to meet with resistance from some viewers. The critics argue that the public broadcasters are already too expensive and that the contribution is a burden, especially for low-income earners. However, the public broadcasters defend the fee increase and the stricter controls. They argue that the public broadcasters are important for democracy and that everyone benefits from them.