04. 02. 2014

Double Payment to Public Service Broadcasters

As of this month citizens provide double payment for watching Evening News, 'Slagalica', 'Beogradska hronika' and the rest of the program of RTS.

In addition to the subscription, which the Serbian government promised to cancel, we will pay for the public service broadcasters also through taxes because a government regulation has come into force stipulating that RTS and RTV will get 7.5 billion dinars from the budget this year.

Double funding was supposed to be only short term, as it was previously announced that during this month the Law on Public Service Broadcasters will be passed and that subscription fee, regulated by the current Law on Broadcasting, will be cancelled. As the elections were called, the procedure will be delayed, and the RTS subscription will be removed from electricity bills in May at best, when we get the new National Parliament. It can also happen that the draft law be amended so that the set of media laws does not arrive until this summer.

- I would not jump to conclusions. The law is still in draft form and it was submitted to relevant ministries for opinion. We will have to wait for the new National Parliament - Sasa Mirkovic, Assistant Minister of Culture in charge of the media said for 'Vecernje novosti'. - It is not yet defined whether future legislation will contain a model according to which public service broadcasters will be funded.

It is envisaged that they receive funds from the state budget until the end of next year . It is possible that the law immediately solves how RTS and RTV will be funded after that period, but it is also possible that the problem be left to be solved later.

RTS and RTV also have a third source of revenue - advertising. According to Goran Karadzic, deputy chairman of the Republic Broadcasting Agency's Council, the abolition of public service broadcasters would be worse than the multiple sources of income.

- It would be very bad if the citizens would be informed only on commercial televisions. It is a scenario that happened in Greece - Karadzic said. - More importantly, the law should solve the continued existence of these televisions instead of the issue being postponed again.

7.4 billion dinars during this year means survival for the republic and the provincial public service broadcasters since they could not survive on subscription alone.

It is estimated that only about a third of the citizens pay subscription and that RTS last year managed to collect less than 379 million dinars instead of 2.5 billion dinars. Depending on the month, the collection rate has varied during 2013 from 16 to 43 percent.

Debts are Clearly Marked

Every dinar which an electricity consumer pays through the bills to the Electric Power Company towards TV subscription goes to these funds. This is determined by the Law on Broadcasting. The Electric Power Company clearly marks debts for electricty and TV subscription on the invoices and the customers can see exactly whether and how much they owe.

An invoice of a customer who has a debt for TV subscription, but regularly pays for electricity, shows only the debt for the subscription and not for electricity. RTS is in charge of enforcing payment of debts for subscription.

- Electricity supply cannot be suspended to a customer due to the debt for radio-television subscription - the Electric Power Company sources say.

M. N. S.