RTVE set to add €70MN to debt in 2015


Details

Juan Fernandez Gonzalez

| 26 September 2015





Although the deficit is not as alarming as it has been, Spain's public broadcaster RTVE keeps losing money, and, by the end of this year, will add €70 more million to its already huge debt.


Since the network started to save up and reduce expenses in 2012, no exercise has been closed with balanced accounts. However, the loss is smaller every year, and the amount expected for 2015 is half of the €140 million drop from 2014.

Following a recently approved plan, RTVE intends 2015 to be its last year with deficit, and has presented 2016's budget as the first one balanced in years. If such budget passes through the parliament, the public network will have €100 million more to spend in 2016, thus covering the structural deficit, which seems impossible to get rid of.

Indeed, RTVE has gone through a very unstable situation during the last six years, which has driven its debt to near €1,000 million.

The continued reining-in of expenses has placed RTVE in a delicate position in front of the audience. According to a recent report, the public channels are suffering from an image problem and are poorly perceived by the viewers.