EBU concerned over Portuguese broadcasting budget cuts

At a day of celebration for Portugals public service media, EBU Director General Ingrid Deltenre welcomed the announcement of a new service contract for the countrys public broadcaster RTP, but stressed that under the new terms, it will remain one of the most underfunded public broadcasters in Europe.

The new service contract for EBU Member broadcaster RTP was presented at the Lisbon conference entitled "Public Service Media in Portugal", which was organised by RTP together with the Portuguese government.

The agreement, which will come into force January 2014 and last until 2030, is expected to pass through parliament next month.

It will end a long period of uncertainty and dispute that began in May 2012, when Portugals former parliamentary affairs minister Miguel Relvas announced the possible privatization of RTP. This lead to a long and complicated negotiation period, during which Relvas stepped down from his post and RTPs board of directors resigned.

The new contract, however, outlines a further reduction of 30 million from the yearly budget, and stipulates a ceiling cap for advertising of six minutes per hour. It also dictates a small increase of the licence fee from 2.25 to 2.65 per month per household.

In addition to Ms Deltenres address, Tim Suter, who chairs EBUs Vision2020 Expert Group III on Governance, Role, Remit & Funding, presented a report about the future strategy of PSM.

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LINK:	http://www3.ebu.ch/cms/en/sites/ebu/contents/news/2013/11/ebu-concerne...
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