Sweden's public broadcaster, feeling pressure as streaming heavyweights like Netflix NFLX +0.69% and HBO gain ground with their newly-founded Nordic services, is taking the nation's television license fees to a new level by asking smartphone and tablet users to pay up.
License fees have been in place for years as state-backed broadcasters look to fund commercial-free programming, including the BBC. In Sweden's case, anyone owning a television is forced to pay a SEK173 ($27) tab per month for Sveriges Television, Sveriges Radio and educational broadcasting known as Utbildningsradion.
That fee hardly looks like a bargain compared with the SEK79 ($12) monthly fee that Netflix Inc. and Time Warner Inc.'s TWX +0.85% HBO each charge subscribers in Sweden.
The good news for Swedes is no matter how many televisions one owns, they only need to pay the fee once.
The bad news is times are rapidly changing and in order to keep up with the increasing use of nonconventional ways to access Sweden's public broadcasting, Sweden's Radiotjänst collection agency is expanding its reach to computers and mobile devices with an Internet connection. That means people ditching televisions for tablets and smartphones are no longer able to ditch the TV fee.
Read more: In Sweden, TV Tax Comes to Smartphones - WSJ.com
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