Latvian Public Mass Media Council (SEPLP) has stated in its announcement that its plans for public orders for 2023 were approved in an «unusual and unclear public media budget situation».
This means that because of insufficient financing both LTV and Latvijas Radio (LR) are at risk of reducing generation of original content.
«Public media have not received confirmation that they will receive compensation of the cost increase caused by the surge of energy prices and inflation in general this year. Meanwhile
in order to report on the war in Ukraine, LR and LTV invest additional time and resources.
There is also the issue of having to resolve matters related to uninterrupted functioning of critical infrastructure and operations of public media, which requires additional investments. Reduction of content or insufficient technical resources may put at risk the security of Latvia’s information space,» stresses SEPLP chairman Jānis Siksnis.
Considering all of these conditions, SEPLP predicts that public order plans will need to be amended this spring once the state budget has been approved. Depending on funding availability for public media, it may mean a serious reduction of generated content. Although public media perform austerity measures, reduce energy consumption, they are unable to cover the general inflation increase, which includes both infrastructure maintenance and content generation costs.
If additional funding is not provided in 2023 to help compensate all this, LTV’s content budget will be 11% lower than it was in 2022. This means reduced volumes of original content both on linear channels and digital environment. In order for LR to maintain generation of original content on the existing level, it is planned to reduce capital investments.
Also read: Ministries and independent institutions in Latvia request significant upping of funding for 2023