There is a “broad consensus” in the Independent General Council (CGI) of RTP about the Government’s decision to end advertising in the public service: “the measure is wrong.” The position was announced this Thursday in parliament by Alberto Arons de Carvalho, a member of the body that supervises and controls compliance with the public service obligations established in the RTP concession contract.
One day after the hearings of the Board of Directors and the Opinion Council of the company, both very critical of the Government’s decisions for RTP, Arons de Carvalho came to corroborate and reinforce the criticisms.
Defending that the Government’s plan, which provides for the gradual end of RTP advertising, which will be applied between 2025 and 2027, “aims to cut foreseeable income without knowing any other alternative”, and that this “does not make sense”, the member of the CGI He also attacked the accounts presented by the Executive, which point to a loss of income for the purpose of advertising of the order of 18 million euros, six million a year.
According to Arons de Carvalho, “apparently” there is a “huge error in the calculations made by the Government.” The calculations made by CGI “give double the amount.” “The Government considered that we would be facing a cut of 18 million euros. If we try to cut two minutes the first year, the second two more, that is, four minutes, and the third year two more, six minutes, that means that the first year we have six million euros less, in the second we will have 12 and in the third 18”. Which, in total, amounts to 36 million euros and not 18. “I think this is a mistake, I wouldn’t say unforgivable but it is very difficult to conceive in a situation like this and I think that the Government should quickly clarify this situation. ”, he warned.
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Underlining that the RTP financing model is “a very relevant issue for rights, freedoms and guarantees”, the CGI member, who was a deputy of the PS and vice president of the Regulatory Body of Social Communication (ERC), questioned whether “ an issue This relevance should only be included in the concession contract and should not be integrated into a legislative change to existing law or a state budget law.
Arons de Carvalho also raised the possibility that this measure could raise “constitutionality issues” as it could “call into question the regular functioning of a public radio and television service through a systematic interruption of funding.” The official also highlighted that there is currently an “absolute European consensus” on the relevance of public service and that in Portugal “everything is ignored, which seems unacceptable to me.”
Asked what would be the best option to finance RTP, Arons de Carvalho argued that it would be an increase in the Audiovisual Contribution (CAV), which is paid in the electricity bill, and that it would be a better option than compensatory compensation. “In theory, I am not opposed to compensation for damages,” but it makes the company “too dependent on economic and financial circumstances, not to mention political ones.” The CAV “is more predictable and regular,” and it was “a mistake not to have been updated in recent years,” he considered.
However, for Arons de Carvalho, “what is advisable is that either the Government reverses course and deviates from its wrong purpose or Parliament takes the necessary legislative initiatives to make this situation unviable.”
The CGI member argued that “there are services that only exist because they are on RTP”, giving the example of RTP 2 programming or channels from the autonomous communities and international channels. “A drastic cut in income without a known alternative raises a huge and worrying question in relation to many of these services that are part of the fundamental axis that is the provision of public services.”
Arons de Carvalho stated that RTP is “one of the cheapest public services in Europe in percentage of GDP per capita”, giving as examples the British BBC, to which families contribute 173 euros per year, or the Spanish RTVE, which receives 1,100 million euros. per year. For Arons de Carvalho, RTP “is a competitive and not expensive product considering the role it plays.”
For Arons de Carvalho, the objective of the measure should not be the privatization of RTP but to “benefit private television operators”, and the person in charge does not believe that they exist, since the transfer of income will be allocated to digital platforms. .
Isabel Medina, who is also part of the RTP CGI, intervened in the hearing to say that “decapitalizing RTP is decapitalizing the future of the country,” and that “we still do not fully understand what this attack currently serves against RTP.” The comment provoked criticism from the PSD which, through deputy Carlos Reis, rejected that RTP was under “attack”, considering that it was the audience itself that became “an attack on the Government with a call for the mobilization of unnatural majorities.” .
How much are six minutes (of advertising) worth in RTP accounts?
Source: Observadora
