Only RTVE, which premieres president, accumulated losses of 700 million in the last five years and is now economically feasible
Jose Antonio Sanchez has already taken over as the new President of RTVE. The former CEO of Telemadrid, under whose management the dismissal of 75% of the workforce was adopted in regional television, faces the challenge of undertaking a profound reform of the audiovisual statewide group, which has accumulated losses of 700 million euros in the last five years and is today economically unviable. Only grants, and the regional television RTVE have cost the Spaniards 1,900 million in 2013 and more than 9,000 million euros during the years of crisis.
Since the government announced in 2009 the reform funding of the public body, with the removal of advertising and from fees imposed on private broadcasters and telecom operators, no one gets done with the rudder’s flagship public television. None of the chairmen appointed from the transformation of RTVE Corporation, passed in 2006, has completed its mandate. Although with different triggers, the underlying reason has always had the same name: funding. Luis Fernandez, who took office in January 2007 as the first president of the new RTVE, born without debt and with new laws trying to untie their performance changes of government, resigned in November 2009. It alleged “personal reasons “the same as five years has wielded as official justification, Leopoldo Gonzalez-Echenique, to jump ship.
Fernandez as president, RTVE improved their hearing and issued findings of successful formats, several them with wide international recognition, like information services, which many observers then exhibited one of the highest levels of quality audiovisual group, and independence. It was not enough. The departure of Fernandez, who was part of Moncloa from criticism by the increased outsourcing of production, there was, in fact, after a final clash with the Executive for a new model of funding of RTVE, which would take effect in 2010, which Fernandez was not accepted.
The new financing system was also at the bottom of the reasons that led to the resignation of the successor to Fernandez, Alberto Oliart that after just a year and a half in office submitted its resignation. Where applicable, the final trigger was awarded to the company of his son Paul of the technical program coverage the morning of the 1.
Both Fernandez and Oliart were chosen following a pact between PP and PSOE, obviated the Government in appointing Echenique, appealing to the urgency demanded without a professional manager group for almost a year. Among the resignations of the ancestors of Echenique a rotating chairmanship of directors, which completely blocked RTVE management, exacerbating a crisis that fails to overcome won
Now is back occur. Echenique output has forced the government to appoint as acting president Jose Manuel Peñalosa, RTVE counselor PP proposal. And it will happen as long as the background is not it address the problem: funding. Behind the “personal reasons” Echenique is, as in its predecessors, the inability to balance the books of a viable group
The problem RTVE is very simple to understand. Revenues do not cover expenses. In 2013 it lost 113 million and 700 million accumulated deficit the last five years. The solution also reduce the size. Much. The stumbling block is called ERE. The state group, with 6,400 employees, can not compete with Mediaset and Atresmedia, which together half of the workforce. The way to increase revenue to balance the income statement is closed. Without access to advertising, which claimed around unsuccessfully Echenique, billing depends on state subsidies, which by law can not rise, and rates to telecoms and television, which only fall. The revenue crisis spanning the private broadcasters and telecommunications companies, which by law must allocate a portion of its revenue to finance the state broadcaster, and the resignation of several operators to offer television services to avoid payment of the fee threaten the model. Contributions from telecommunications operators account for a third of the revenue budget RTVE, complete with radio rate and state funding.
On the side of costs, cost-cutting program has stopped 10% audience share of TVE, insufficient to fulfill its public service mission. Staff costs, which take 40% of the total, are in the crosshairs of the managers.
All this funding system, devised by the last Socialist Government and maintained by the PP It has been declared illegal by the European Commission, which considered State aid. The Luxembourg Court, surprisingly, last year rejected the view of the Commission, in an unpublished decision, lifted the ban model dictated from Brussels.
The worst thing is that the government seems to have no plan B , ruled out a return to advertising, which leaves public television in a deadlock with shackled Executive. The solution is thus necessarily reduce significantly the eight channels TVE operates now, and do not multiply their public tasks, but its cost and the oversized template group. Autonomic
The economic infeasibility of public television in Spain is not unique in any case RTVE. In April 2012, the government passed a legal amendment to allow the regions to “liquidate or sell all or part, publicly owned chains.” The legislation sought to “greater efficiency” and respond “to requests from many regions,” which at the difficulties they face, claiming that the possibilities offered by the previous regulation, according to the vice president then explained Soraya Saenz de Santamaria be widened.
Nearly two and a half years after this legal change, any Autonomous Community has privatized or partially sold their TV, despite deep cuts in public spending that are ongoing, to meet the demands of deficit that marks the government.
The lack of offers to buy or manage in full chains has become a dead letter the new legislation, with some investors who do not find attractive in chains with high costs and a declining incomes without turning point in sight.
Advertising revenue from the thirteen regional television stations have collapsed. To this must be added the lack of political will of the community to get rid of their televisions. The regional television audiences have not ceased to be decreasing in the last five years, with market shares below 5% screen in such iconic past and Telemadrid and Canal Sur chains, and only with TV3 clearly above 10% in its territory .
So far, only Telemadrid and Canal Nou Valencia have moved tab, in the two cases with drastic cuts in employment and, consequently, the size of firms. Both Madrid and Valencia have been reduced, so the costs of their televisions, which however have become almost irrelevant in terms of audience, leaving them unable to fulfill its public service mission.
between large regional that have not yet been restructured Television of Catalonia has six channels. The budget for this year is 295.9 million euros and public subsidy granted by the Government is 225 million. Radio Television of Andalusia has two TV channels (Canal Sur and Canal Sur 2) .The RTVA budget for this year is 165 million euros, of which the Andalusian brings 138 million. The ETB Basque and Galician TVG are the only large regional that have managed their accounts closed without a deficit.
