Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority campaigns for TV licence gift voucher

print this

The Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority FICORA is to launch a campaign this week to promote a television licence gift voucher that would enable parents, grandparents, godparents, or friends to present someone with a paid TV-licence for a set time period from a month to a year.
      According to FICORA, a TV-licence gift voucher would make a useful gift for, say, students moving away from home.
      It could also be used as an engagement or wedding gift for young couples setting up a home.
     
”The idea was spawned at a brainstorming session between FICORA and the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE”, explains Communications Director Anna Lauttamus-Kauppila from FICORA.
      “The aim was to create a real service that would also help the parents and grandparents in choosing a suitable gift. Simultaneously it would be a positive way for the young adults moving away from home to carry out their obligations”, Lauttamus-Kauppila continues.
      In the first instance the gift certificate can be purchased from a telephone service (number: 09 613 161). If the service becomes popular, an electronic version can also be devised. “That would already require slightly larger system changes, so we will first see how the pilot project takes off.”
     
Behind the move is the worry over the declining number of sold TV-licences.
      Last year the number of licences fell for the first time, by about 50,000. Of those discontinuing their licences 32,000 announced “going digital” as the reason.
      The number of those with a TV-licence dropped under two million, in other words, to the same level as in 1997.
      “The other reason is that the younger generation has never been too keen on paying for the licence. A gift certificate is a much nicer way of dealing with the issue, compared with the children taking their bills to be paid by mum and dad”, Lauttamus-Kauppila says.
      Paid in one instalment, an annual Finnish TV-licence costs EUR 215.45.


Links:
  FICORA Press Release

Helsingin Sanomat