Editing Television licence (section)

===Canada===
[[File:Special Private Receiving Station License 1948-49.jpg|thumb|right|From 1922 to 1953 individual members of the public were required to pay for annual Private Receiving Station licences to legally receive broadcasting stations.]]
The Radiotelegraph Act 1913 required anyone possessing a radio receiver to hold an "Amateur Experimental Station" licence,<ref>[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015064554697&view=1up&seq=211 "Laws and Regulations—Canada"], ''The Year-Book of Wireless Telegraphy & Telephony'' (1914 edition), pages 131–132.</ref><ref>[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.c2605161&view=1up&seq=1508 "Regulations: 18. Amateur Experimental Licenses"],''The Canadian Gazette'', 27 June 1914, page 4546.</ref> and pass an "Amateur Experimental Certificate of Proficiency", demonstrating the ability to send and receive Morse code at five words per minute.<ref name="babel.hathitrust.org">[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.c2605161&view=1up&seq=1512 "Regulations: 97. Amateur Experimental Certificate"],''The Canadian Gazette'', 27 June 1914, page 4550.</ref> In January 1922 the government introduced a Private Receiving Station licence for people who only intended to receive radio, rather than transmit.<ref>Mary Vipond, ''Listening In: The First Decade of Canadian Broadcasting 1922–1932'', McGill-Queen's University Press, 1992, pages 22–23.</ref><ref>[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nnc1.cu06812988&view=1up&seq=1371 Radiotelegraph Regulations: License to Operate a Radio Receiving Equipment"], ''The Canada Gazette'', 23 September 1922, page 7.</ref> The receiving station licences initially cost $1 per year. Over time this increased to $2.50 to cover radio and television broadcasts by the [[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation|Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)]]. The licence fee was abolished in 1953 and replaced with a 15% excise tax on television equipment (including sets, picture tubes, and parts) to fund the CBC.<ref name="eliminated">[http://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2016/fin/F1-23-1-1953-eng.pdf#page=21 "Budget Speech Delivered by Hon. D. C. Abbott, Minister of Finance, in the House of Commons, Thursday, February 19, 1953"], page 21 (gc.ca)</ref> This excise tax was phased out in 1958, with the CBC's funding shifting primarily to parliamentary appropriations.