[kuschku]

There is quite a difference: The station isn’t paid for by taxes from the government, but the station has the right to collect its own taxes, ensuring it can act independently.

[taejo]

Moreover, this right is established by a treaty between the German states, rather than by a law of the federal government.

[elcapitan]

So there's basically a media bureaucracy that can decide how much money it wants to earn, without asking any customers. Awesome!

[kuschku]

But they can not decide their own wages, can not carry profits from one year into the other, and can not hoard excess money.

[hussong]

Side note: as someone who pays that fee, I would never think of myself as a 'customer' of public broadcasting, since it's a public service -- just like I wouldn't think of myself as a 'customer' of hospitals, schools, communal waste disposal, the fire department or law enforcement.

[taejo]

That may be true, but it's irrelevant to my point, which was that the Rundfunkbeitrag is a matter of state (Land) law, and thus even further away from the hands of the federal foreign ministry.