The Flemish public broadcaster has to save 65 million euro before the year 2011. That’s why as many as 300 people, employed by the Flemish public broadcaster, could lose their jobs. The management of the VRT is due to present its spending plans to the board of directors on 15 March.
Already 90 employees have signed to leave the Flemish public broadcaster voluntarily. The director hopes to obtain the number of 279 before the end of the year. I think that is very bad, but the thing that is really outrageous is the fact that they will cut into the budgets of the shows they are offering to their viewers. Some shows will even be cancelled altogether.
The production costs of all shows have to be cut with 10% with the exception of news and culture. These shows only have to cut 5% of all costs. Concretely, this means less sport will be broadcasted; there will be less entertainment on Fridays and less Flemish fiction productions. Off course, I personally couldn’t care less about the loss of sports on tv…but what about all those thousands of football lovers?
On the other hand, the savings will also have consequences for the external production houses. The exclusivity- contract between the Flemish public broadcaster and production house ‘Woenstijnvis’ will come to an end in the middle of this year. The public broadcaster pays almost 30 billion euro in a year to Woestijnvis. This sum of money contains an exclusivity remuneration for the cooperation with Woestijnvis, success premiums,… I know, this is a lot of money. But will this saving plan causes enough inputs to keep offering this successful formula?
Above all, the programs with the highest viewing figures (“man bijt hond”, “van vlees en bloed”,…) are coming from Woestijnvis. So if this exclusivity contract would disappear, the Flemish public broadcaster will fall behind its competitors, won’t it?
http://www.tv-visie.be/nieuws/belgie/contract-vrt-en-productiehuis-woestijnvis-onder-vuur_18368/
http://knack.rnews.be/nieuws/belgie/bijna-300-banen-op-de-tocht-bij-de-vrt/site72-section24-article47910.html#
http://www.nieuwsblad.be/article/detail.aspx?articleid=DMF20100316_101
Abonneren op:
Reacties posten (Atom)
What a pity that the Flemish public broadcasting company has to phase out its activities just now. During the last years the Flemish series and films were making significant progress, which made them more popular than ever. Last mentioned can be proven by the appearance of numerous Flemish films in cinemas such as Dossier K., Loft, De Helaasheid der Dingen and so on. Let’s also not forget that there were also several promising series over the last few years which could also count on international curiosity. The success of these films and series probably has a lot to do with the financial support given by the government. Through the introduction of the so-called tax shelter measure, the profit that originates from these films is exempt from taxes.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenMoreover, I fear that the Flemish public broadcaster isn’t dealing with the financial crisis in a good way and is using it as an apology for cutting off their less successful, yet promising series. As for me, the big question is: why aren’t they saving on broadcasting sports or delaying the sequels of popular but very expensive programs instead?
I agree with you very strongly when you say that the most popular series on VRT were actually made by Woestijnvis.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenVRT has a very fix audience, the more intellectual people watch VRT and to be honest, this broadcasting channel is a one of a kind. I don't think these people will be pleased to watch VijfTV instead.
In my opinion, VRT has to think about it a little bit more when it comes to ending the contact with Woestijnvis.