Presentation

Public Broadcasting in the Netherlands

For the Serbian delegation

November 5th, 2014 Aron Tihanyi

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Index

• Abolition of the licence fee (From Licence fee to State Funds)

• Financing of the Dutch national public broadcasting services (PBS)

• Reorganization and new structure of the public broadcasting services in the Netherlands

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Abolition of the licence fee (1)

Licence fee in The Netherlands (1969-1999)• payment of the licence fee possession of a receiver (radio, TV).• Yearly indexation.• Collection by the agency “Dienst omroepbijdragen”

Costs of the agency (in 1999): 27 million Euro; The agency has collected (in 1999) 636 million Euro.

• Licence fee in 1999: 88 euro per household for TV and Radio

= This would be 119 euro per household in 2013 when indexed. 25 euro per household for Radio only

= This would be 34 euro per household in 2013 when indexed.

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Abolition of the licence fee (2)

Abolition of the licence fee: WHY?• Political (and financial) decision;• Licence fee as a collective burden;• Efficiency gains of 27 million Euro (no collection costs);• Budget is required for Youth Care.

Basic conditions for the abilition were: independency, continuation of the NPO and a stable level of financing.

Macro-economical effets in 1999/2000• “Inflation falls due to the abolition of the licence fee”

(Statistics Netherlands);• Income tax was raised by 1,1%.

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Abolition of the licence fee (3)

Advantages of abolishing the licence fee (according to the government in 1999/2000)• No collection costs (= efficiency gains for the government).• No collection problems.

Disadvantages of abolishing the licence fee• Licence fee as a legal “target charge”;• Licence fee as a certain source of income; • Budget of the NPO is part of the annual general national budget;• Budget cuts.

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Abolition of the licence fee (4)

Financing: how was it?•Revenues from Licence fee + Commercial income (Ster)

Financing: how is it?•State Funds + Commercial income (Ster)

State Funds: • A minimum level of budget is fixed in the Media Act (1998).• Indexes are linked to the budget:

index growth of number of households; and the domestic consumer price index (CPI).

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Financing of the Dutch national PBS: Current financial system with State Budget (1)

Media budget: Revenues (2014)

Media budget: Expenditures (2014)

X 1 million Euro

The Regional public broadcasting

services are part of the Media budget

since 2014!

State Funds 808,9Commercial incomes (Ster-incomes) 196,0

Interest (on the amount which is in the General Reserve Media) 0,5Total 1.005,4

National public broadcasting services (NPO) 770,2Regional public broadcasting services 146,4Other institutions* 50,2Subtotal 966,8Mutations to the General Reserve Media (AMR) 38,6Total 1.005,4

Mutations to the AMR: to allow for the restructuring and termination costs of institutions and for the fluctuations of the commercial income.

* such as: the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, the Dutch Cultural Media Fund, the Dutch Media Authority and the Stimulation of the Press.

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Reorganization and new structure of the public broadcasting services in the Netherlands (1)

Current structure of the Netherlands Public Broadcasting (NPO)

•21 national broadcasting associations: 9 member based and licensed broadcasters (AVRO, KRO, etc.); 2 new member based associations (PowNed and WNL); 2 associations are task-based (NOS and NTR); and 8 other organizations have limited airtime for "religious

programming (RKK, OHM, etc.)."

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Reorganization and new structure of the public broadcasting services in the Netherlands (2)

Budget cuts in the past• Examples: under the Cabinets Balkenende I, Balkenende II,

Balkenende IV, Rutte I and Rutte II.

Latest budget cuts (Cabinets Rutte I and Rutte II): Budget cuts Media (incl. the Independent Administrative bodies):

approx. 252 million Euro. Budget cuts NPO: approx. 145 million Euro.

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Reorganization and new structure of the public broadcasting services in the Netherlands (3)

Cabinet Rutte I (- 201,3 million Euro):• Research BCG (2011): efficiency gains.

Cabinet Rutte II (- 51 million Euro):• Research BCG (2013): increasing incomes.• Prospective (foresight) study by the Dutch Council for Culture (2014):

how the public broadcasting could best fulfill its public functions in the future?

• The vision of the State Secretary about the future of the public broadcasting system (13th of October 2014)Date of the debate about the vision: 24th of Nov. 2014.

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Reorganization and new structure of the public broadcasting services in the Netherlands (4)

The main Cabinet vision for the public broadcasting in a nutshell:• More innovative, more decisive and more distinctive;

• Programs: information, education and culture;

• New program makers;

• More cooperation between national and regional broadcasters;

• More attention to public values;

• Increased level of accountability.

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Reorganization and new structure of the public broadcasting services in the Netherlands (5)

New structure of the NPO (in 2016)

• 8 national broadcasting associations 3 merged: KRO/NCRV, VARA/BNN, TROS/AVRO; 3 stand-alone: EO, MAX and VPRO; 2 task-based: NOS and NTR.

• New broadcasting associations must join the existing ones.• New program makers will be able to offer their plans for programs

directly to the NPO (“umbrella organization”).• More cooperation between the 8 national and the 13 regional

broadcasters.

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Thank you for your attention!

Any questions?