The name of the authority is a euphemism: "Contribution Service".

From the point of view of the public broadcaster, it provides a service because it collects the license fee.

From the point of view of the contributors, the old name was appropriate: "Gebühreneinzugszentrale", abbreviated to GEZ.

But this rubrum, under which the "contribution service" continues to run for many, fell victim to the framing of the institutions.

"Service" also sounds much better, after service, not after compulsory registration or enforcement.

The authority collected 8.42 billion euros in broadcasting fees in 2021, more than 45 million contribution accounts are being managed, the number of exemptions and reductions has fallen, the income of the broadcasters is increasing, in 2020 the income from the broadcasting fee was 8.1 billion, in the past Year there was 300 million euros more, and that, although the monthly contribution increased from 17.50 euros to 18.36 euros was only collected from August.

This means that public broadcasters' revenues will continue to rise this year: the next record.

Nevertheless, we will continue to hear the litany from the broadcasters: We don't have enough money, we have to save terribly.

Scorn in the ears of the contributors

That was never true, now it sounds even more like mockery in the ears of the citizens suffering from inflation.

What is true is that some broadcasters, such as Hessischer Rundfunk, are in the red and produce shortfalls.

Their costs are too high due to pension costs, a lack of synergies, a gigantic apparatus and continued expansion.

Intendants and program heads are constantly talking about restrictions and that the program has to be cut back - that always acts as a threat - if there isn't even more money.

And then?

If the additional income is suddenly gone again, the institutions count themselves poor and draw up the next plan for their “financial needs”.

In an interview with the FAZ, the head of the Fees Commission, Martin Detzel, has already announced that, despite record income from the broadcasting fee of 8.42 billion euros, which includes around another billion in additional income, this could continue to rise.

You don't want to find the idea that it's slow enough populist.

Not the demand of the Green politician Monika Heinold to suspend the broadcasting fee for half a year.

Nor the proposal for a “GEZ relief package” that the CSU state group in the Bundestag submitted.

She imagines a break in contributions of three months.

The director of Deutschlandradio, Stefan Raue, contradicted this at this point – the stations could not do without on their own from a purely legal point of view.

The federal states would have to implement a moratorium.

But don't think about that.

After six years of consulting, you have just managed to redefine the “task” of the broadcasters.

They are still dealing with the financing of the most expensive public service broadcaster in the world.

One should not hope for an end to the cascade of financial needs.

This will only happen when even fewer citizens take advantage of the program that they have to pay for.

That could take a generation.