RTVE's budget increases by €100 million


Details

Juan Fernandez Gonzalez

| 06 August 2015





Despite an increasing debt and a falling audience, the budget for the Spanish public broadcaster RTVE will be increased by nearly €100 million during 2016, taking it to almost €1,000 million.


The public network will still continue to reign in expenses, but some events will increase their outlay over next year. The coverage of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics is expected to cost over €55 million, driving the general expenditure up 2.7% compared to the current year.

For 2016, RTVE will get €974 million, a third of which is for staff costs, including external agreements.

Since private advertising was prohibited on RTVE in 2010, it has faced major financial problems. During 2014, the corporation's losses totalled €96.1 million, 23% more than the previous year. No official figure has been placed on the network's debt, but several industry's sources estimate it to be nearly €900 million.

The main problem seems to be the disparity between what RTVE expects to invoice and spend against what it actually does. For 2016, €922 million will come directly from the public treasury, while over €45 million is expected to be invoiced from content sales and sports sponsorships, and nearly €10 million will come from other sources.

In addition, RTVE's investments, mostly in digitalisation and new technical features, will also increase, reaching almost €57 million, 51.5% more than in 2015.