Tonight: License fee funded television.

Norway’s state owned TV station, NRK, is mainly funded by a TV license fee. What you really pay for is the TV tuner, but all the money goes to the NRK. Having worked there for a year, I’ve seen what the money are used for and it’s not a bill I pay with a smile on my mouth.

Actually, I haven’t even been paying it, and to get hold of people like me who are not paying the license fee, NRK has dispatched a small army of blood suckers, now lurking in the shadows, waiting for you. I’ve only had my TV for a short time, and it’s the store’s responsibility to report my purchase of the TV to the right authorities. But in my case that obviously didn’t happen:

When I got home from work today, one of these lurkers was waiting for me at my apartment door. I kid you not, he was camping in front of my apartment, waiting for me, ready to question me about the likeliness of me owning a TY tuner and the fact that I haven’t paid the fee. Not being capable of lying when I need to - “I don’t have a TV, now please go and play on the freeway” - I’m now sucked into the TV license fee system where I’ll stay until I die, somehow convince them that I don’t own a TV tuner anymore or hell freezes over.

The TV license is probably the most unfair fee there is. You pay for the TV tuner, but NRK get all the money, even if you never watch any of their two channels or listen to any of their radio stations.

NRK, why can’t you just switch to being a advertisement funded company instead? Grow up.