27. 09. 2010

JOINT STANDS ON INSTITUTIONS OF PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING (RTS AND RTV) AND COMMERCIAL BROADCASTERS

ANEM, IJAS (NUNS), JAS (UNS), IJAV (NDNV) and Local Press have defined joint stands on the Institutions of public service broadcasting and commercial broadcasters, which the fourth round table on drafting the Media Strategy held on September 23, 2010 was dedicated to. This proposal of the five media associations was publicly presented at the fifth round table, on September 27, 2010 in Belgrade.

Joint stands on Institutions of public service broadcasting (RTS and RTV) and commercial broadcasters

INSTITUTIONS OF PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING (RTS AND RTV)

1)         It is necessary to precisely define obligations of Institutions of public service broadcasting, which must be verifiable and measurable, and to establish clear indicators that would serve as a basis for assessment of performance of the institutions of public service broadcasting in their public service role; at the same time, it is necessary to introduce a set of measures aimed at improving transparency of activities of the institutions of public service broadcasting, as well as to create control mechanisms regarding the public service broadcaster's fulfillment of its legal obligations. All of this would entail an obligation of the institutions of public service broadcasting to create detailed plans that would document how these institutions intend to fulfill their legal obligations including their budgets for certain channels, programs, newsrooms, services and obligations, namely the information on how their budgets would be used to fulfill those obligations. The plans would cover a period of at least one year in advance and would be made available to the public and to the relevant regulatory body. At the end of the year, the institutions of public service broadcasting would submit reports to the relevant regulatory body, including financial reports, that would document the degree of realization of legal obligations, including the obligations stipulated by special laws (for example, the Law on Advertising and the limitations related to sale of advertising space in advance and the sale of advertising space to the same person or a group of related persons). These reports must be available to the public. 

2)        It is necessary to improve the capacity of the regulatory body to perform analyses, evaluations and assessment of plans, i.e. to authorize the regulatory body to hire independent experts for this purpose, in order to use the performed analyses to make recommendations to Managing Boards of institutions of public service broadcasting as well as to Media Funds, with the aim to finance projects of commercial broadcasters that would close possible gaps in the public service program content. It is necessary to permanently monitor those who perform the role of public service broadcaster, in order to improve their activities and better satisfy the public interest, as well as to establish clear mechanisms of their accountability. It is necessary to regularly perform - in precise intervals - surveys that would show what it is that the audience wants from the public service broadcaster, how it satisfies the various needs of the audience, what is missing and how the audience views the responsibility of the public service broadcaster toward the public. It is necessary to perform regular monitoring of public service broadcaster's production - from the critics' point of view - that would place this production within a systemic context and analyze how the program obligations have been fulfilled during a certain period of time and in comparison to other public broadcasters in the region and commercial domestic broadcasters.

3)        It is necessary to increase the collection of the TV fee (or the contribution for audio-visual services in public interest) and to lower the costs of its collection, in order to provide stable financing of institutions of public service broadcasting and decrease their dependency on commercial revenue. It is necessary to oblige the institutions of public service broadcasting to separate (in accounting terms) the commercial revenue from the TV fee revenue (or the contribution for audio-visual services in public interest) and to submit precise reports that would clearly and transparently indicate which revenue is used to finance which expenses.

4)        Concurrently with the increase in the collection of the TV fee (or the contribution for audio-visual services in public interest), additional limitations will be considered and introduced with the aim to lower the quotas of advertising on the public service broadcaster, first by forbidding the advertising breaks in the program (this regulation would mean that public service broadcasters are allowed to air advertisements only between programs, and not during them), and later by reducing the allowed quotas of advertising within public service broadcasters' programs.

5)        It is necessary that the state treats all public service broadcasters in Serbia equally, i.e. the Radio Television of Serbia and Radio Television of Vojvodina.

6)        It is necessary to establish a transparent system of collection of the TV fee, providing a mechanism that would allow the appropriate share of the collected TV fee to be directly delivered to the public service broadcaster of Vojvodina, instead of using the public service broadcaster of Serbia as a mediator in distribution of the TV fee.

7)        It is necessary that the Media Development Strategy in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina more clearly define the guidelines of development of the public service broadcaster of Vojvodina, taking into account the principle of multiculturalism and other specific characteristics of the Province.

We have already offered some of the recommendations related to this area in earlier discussions. Here we clarify and extend them:

1)         The number of licenses should not be limited in advance. The problem of too many existing broadcasters as compared to what the market can support (this problem is clearly obvious) should be solved by measures that would stimulate consolidation of the market, mergers and fusions in the media market.

2)        Future extensions of issued licenses must be based on evaluation of the content using clearly defined and measurable criteria.

3)        Within a new Strategy of Development of Audio-Visual Media Services (created by the Republic Broadcasting Agency to replace the Strategy of Development of Broadcasting), the issuance of new licenses (whose number, as we have mentioned, should not be limited in advance) should be preceded by well-regulated procedures for deciding on coverage zones and the number and type of newly-licensed programs, after analyzing the needs of citizens and social groups for media content, the capacity of the market and the consequences of issuing new licenses.

4)        If the previously described steps confirm that is it possible and necessary to introduce new multiplexes and issue new licenses, the Republic Broadcasting Agency would issue such licenses in a public competitions using detailed, clear and measurable criteria that would give preference to the offered content instead of the potential income for the state (in the form of fees for licenses and fees for access to multiplex). These decisions would be explained in detail. The criteria would take into account the program genres (e.g. news program, research program, cultural program, domestic films and series), human resources, the percentages of individual genres within budgets, as well as the percentage of independent productions' program.

5)        If analyses show that there is a lack of programs that are usually considered a part of public service broadcaster's content (e.g. regional and local news programs etc.), the licenses issued to commercial broadcasters would oblige them (in a form of regulatory obligation) to produce and air such program.

6)        The fees that are being paid now, and the fees that will be paid to regulatory bodies after the transition to digital broadcasting, must be established in accordance with the costs of regulation, while a part of the collected fees must be delivered to the Media Fund.

7)        Efficient mechanisms of control of government's assistance and determined fight against piracy should be used as tools to eliminate unfair competition in the media market.