Is it true that in Europe that you need a television licenses before you get a television?

Yes, it is true. A television licence (or broadcast receiver licence) is an official licence required in many countries for all owners of television (and sometimes also radio) receivers. It is a form of hypothecation tax to fund public broadcasting, thus allowing public broadcasters to transmit programmes without, or with only supplemental, funding from radio and television commercials.

The television licence was originally known as a radio licence, and was used to fund public radio broadcasting. With the arrival of television some countries created a separate additional television licence, while others simply increased the radio licence fee to cover the additional cost of TV broadcasting, changing the licence's name from "radio licence" to "TV licence" or "receiver licence".

Today most countries fund public radio broadcasting from the same licence fee that is used for television, although a few still have separate radio licences, or apply a lower or no fee at all for consumers who only have a radio. Some countries also have different fees for users with colour or monochrome TV. Many give discounts, or charge no fee, for elderly and/or disabled consumers.

For a list of European countries that requires tv licenses visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_...

Yes helpful but nothing that you could not have found from google.... in fact copied verbatum http://www.public-interest.co....

Oh well I guess ppl who actually live(d) in Europe can't be expected to "know"! Report It

We are American, but we lived in Switzerland in 1985-1986. We needed a license to own everything: TV, phone, garbage can, you name it.

There are a lot of countries in Europe. I have lived in four of them and I never needed a license to buy or have a tv.

Yes you need a license for everything in Europe. ah ah ah

Not in the three that I have lived in. Basic channels are free to air but if you want cable/digital etc (and actually any channels that are worth watching) then you have to pay a subscription ..... so I suppose you could call this a licence depending how you look at it!

well there are a lot of countries in europe

and in ireland you need one each year
not sure about the 30 other countries though