02. 09. 2005

FINANCIAL INJECTION OF 80 MILLION EUROS NECESSARY FOR RTS

BELGRADE, September 02, 2005 (Danas) – Electricity bills will be increased for estimated 300 dinars in October and many households will face a harsh reality that Radio Television of Serbia has to receive money directly from citizens and not from budget which has been done previously. However, all former Yugoslav republics went through this harsh reality. RTS has to improve its programme. It has to be a permanent public discussion board which will have a critical view towards the government, always show two sides of the story and enable citizens' voice to be heard – says for Danas one of the creators of the Broadcasting Law, Rade Veljanovski. He thinks that RTS' programme is making progress, but is still far from the standards it is supposed to implement to become a public service. Meanwhile, he warns that this television will not be able to improve further without a TV subscription. Veljanovski supports the establishment of a transitional fund, because the government is obliged to assist in national TV's transformation, "of course, without involvement in employment of staff or editorial policy". There are many arguments in favor of the TV subscription. Analysts believe that it is a very important step in former communist countries because of the tradition of political manipulation using state's broadcasting monopoly. The subscription should make radio television independent from the political agenda of those who decide on the budgetary distribution, with funding more predictable, ensuring easier planning and investment. Numbers prove that the national TV is fighting for breath. After the last rebalance of the budget, 20 million euros are earmarked for RTS annually. Its directors repeatedly stress that bankruptcy is very near because RTS has been barely able to work even when it received 54,8 million euros in 2003. Rade Veljanovski estimates that a Serbian public service with two "media houses" – in Belgrade and Novi Sad – will need at least 80 million euros. If we compare RTS' budget with conditions in the region, the situation looks even more dramatic. Croatian Radio Television collects 110 million just from subscription, with a total of 170 million. In small neighbouring Slovenia, public service has a budget of 120 million. The two countries have a pretty good experience with subscription. In Croatia, subscription collectors come to collect money. Percentage of successful collection is 97 percent. The subscription is calculated as 1.5 percent of the average net monthly salary in the Republic of Croatia. HRT is allowed to broadcast nine minutes of commercials in one hour of programme. Slovenia has implemented the same solution as ours – subscription is collected with electricity bills. BiH and Macedonia had a bit worse experience. Since last year, TV subscription is collected through phone bills and it amounts to six convertible marks. It is distributed in the following way: 58 percent goes to entity RTVs and 42 percent to BiH's public service. Only lately, after three years, a percentage of successful payments began growing. RTV FBiH managed to collect only 40 percent at the beginning of subscription, while RTRS was able to collect only 22 percent. Macedonia distributes collected funds in such a way that MRTV receives 67.5 percent, while five percent goes to local broadcasters. Commercials may occupy only seven percent of one hour's programme. Most of the countries of the world use several financial sources. Most often cited example is British BBC which is fully funded by subscription. In the Czech Republic and Slovakia two thirds of funds come from subscription, while Austrian ORF receives around half of its total budget from subscription. Canadian CBC and Australian ABC are opposite examples because they are funded exclusively from taxes. Albanian TV receives 65 percent of its revenues from the government. Only Spanish TVE is financed completely by commercials, as the exception from the rule. Commercials are not allowed as a source of income in the United Kingdom, Australia and Sweden. Rade Veljanovski can't estimate how much time will be necessary to stabilize subscription for RTS. He expects that one decade of experience with collection of subscription would probably contribute to the successful implementation of this kind of funding.