You Can’t Control What Doesn’t Exist

Once upon a time in Sweden (or prior to 2019), we had something called a TV licence or a TV fee. In order to finance public service TV and radio channels, every household that owned a TV had to pay a fee. Around the time when Internet streaming services were beginning to get popular, there was a bit of a crackdown on people who had not reported that they owned a TV.

There were controllers going around, knocking on doors of people who had not paid the fee because, for some reason, it was unthinkable that someone would elect not to own a TV. These controllers were not allowed to enter the home. They could only stand outside and ask if there was a TV in the home or, apparently, peek through the windows.

At this time, I legitimately did not own a TV. I lived alone, I got most of my news from the Internet, and I used streaming services for my entertainment needs, so I only had my laptop. However, one day, I got home from work to find a letter from Radiotjänst (the authority in charge of the TV fee) that a TV had been observed in my apartment and that I would need to pay the fee.

This was news to me, so I called their customer service number.

Me: “I got this letter today that says you’ve observed a TV in my home?”

Employee: “Yes, I can see that we’ve had controllers out in your area. Your address is [address], right?”

Me: “Yes, that’s correct. I’m just curious about what TV they’ve observed since I don’t own one. I haven’t had a visit from a controller, either, so I’d really like to know how they reached that conclusion.”

Employee: “All right, let me bring up the notes here. It says the controller walked past your apartment and observed a wall-mounted TV through the living room window.”

Me: “Really? My living room window?”

Employee: “Yes. According to my notes, your apartment is on the ground floor, right?”

Me: “Actually, this is a split-level building. The front entrance is on the ground floor, but in order to observe anything through my living room window on the other side of the house, your controller would have had to climb up onto my balcony. Even then, the only thing they could possibly have observed that’s even remotely TV-shaped would be the cage where I keep my pet rats.”

Employee: “Umm… I’m going to have to get back to you.”

A few days passed by and I didn’t hear back, so I called customer service again and was informed that I would not have to pay the fee.

I guess the controller just wanted to earn their salary without doing their job, assumed that everyone had to have a TV, and just reported everyone in the area who hadn’t paid their fee.

Thankfully, the government eventually realized what an outdated and impractical practice this was and replaced the TV fee with a tax.