Weak Arguments Just Won't Work

I see that Dutch public broadcasting has launched a direct appeal to its public to protest about government funding cuts. That's been tried by so many others before. And it never works. Because the public have no reference to measure whether the claims are true.

The antiquated Dutch system with over 22 separate public-funded production companies finally broke in 2011, more than 5 years after independent analysis warned that it was all unsustainable. 127 million was shaved off the national public broadcast budget then, the balance being found by virtually eliminating the Wereldomroep (Radio Netherlands), some orchestras, and very bureaucratic organisations like the Media Commission. So the cuts to national broadcasting then was 127 not 200 million as is being claimed now.

Then along came another cut of another 100 million. And that will kill off a lot of creative productions that once gave the Netherlands a production edge in Europe. Now, that talent has vapourised, I would argue that only the VPRO is left as a public broadcaster in the way that it adds value to society and social discussion. The rest are doing their best to fill airtime. But even the VPRO has been decimated recently. And, of course, the wrong people were forced to leave. Dutch public broadcasting is notoriously bureaucratic and a lot more needs to be chopped away before the young tender shoots have a chance to recover. It's going to take time, and Hilversum doesn't have much time left.

Organising a day of action in the Hague, with free buses from the provinces, smacks more of a rally the government might organise in Iran. Not of this century.

Mind you, the political parties are not being clever either. Instead of ignoring such a protest campaign, the right-of- centre VVD has tabled questions in the Dutch parliament. Was public money being used to finance such a campaign, which has so far raised 130,000 signatures? Probably not - build a few pages on a website and grabbing a few relevant quotes can't cost that much. And all this might raise the question as to why there is still guaranteed airtime for political parties in a 500 channel universe.

What the government should have done is set aside a budget for public broadcasting and ensured that the current incumbents could only get access to half that amount. The balance would be open to new production guilds who could create programmes without the current legacy perspective. Fewer programmes of a much higher production value are desperately needed in this market.

I believe in a healthy public broadcasting system. But I also demand it to be far more transparent. That is definitely not the case at the moment. Holland is well behind other countries in working out what public broadcasting does to maintain and grow public values. And then explaining it to the people that foot the bill. Us. 

NPO Meltdown - Biting the Hand that feeds

Dutch public broadcasting seems to be desperately looking for ways to soften the 100 million euro cuts to its overall operating budget in coming years. For me, the answer has be clear all along. Make less material of better quality.

But the vision in Hilversum seems to be to start a campaign to get cable distributors to pay more for the privilege of distributing public broadcast channels in The Netherlands. Seeing that cable companies are busy building their own portfolio of programmes from foreign channels like HBO, the Netherlands Public Broadcasters are risking biting the hand that feeds them. Yes, the programmes are scoring better than some of the current commercial offerings. But this is not the way to address the issue at a time when government economic forecasts are in freefall and the public is not being consulted on what it wants. It's all closed door politics.

So I believe that the idea that this will bring in another 60 million Euro in revenue is just pure fantasy. Public broadcasting is already a "government pay-TV" system. There is no licence fee - it is part of general taxation. I believe the budget is in danger of being cut again at this rate. Public relations madness...

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Choices for Dutch Public Media Becomes Clearer

I got another call this week from friends in Washington DC working at a renowned journalism college asking what’s about to happen in Dutch public broadcasting? There was a lot of talk in June 2011 when the previous Dutch cabinet issued a 39 page letter to parliament explaining its plans for drastic changes to Dutch public broadcasting, regional, national and international. Time for an update.

Purple Coalition Announces Further Deep Cuts

The fall of the Dutch government lead by Mark Rutte on 21st April 2012 meant that civil servants and politicians stopped talking in public about the reform plans. But clearly planning has been going on regardless. With the formation of a new purple coalition between the Labour and Liberals, the negotiated agreement for the Rutte 2 government have now been published (in Dutch of course). There are two bits about media in this document which struck me (my translation).

Media. The (public) media policy guarantees an independent, varied and high quality offer, accessible to all layers of society. The current policy will be changed on a number of points.

1. The 13 Regional broadcasters will no longer be financed by the provincial government, but by the national government as part of their public media budget (also used to finance national public radio, TV and Internet operations). Cooperation between the regional broadcasters (who fall under the ROOS) and national public broadcasters (NPO and NOS), as well as the integration tasks, will lead to savings. These are estimated later in the same document to be 25 million Euro, with budget reductions to be completed by 2017.

2. We will reconsider the need for a Dutch Cultural Media Fund. The fund to stimulate press and print innovation will remain. 

So what could this mean? First a little context on the current situation.

The current TV landscape

If you live in most parts of the Netherlands you have access to four publicly financed TV channels. Three are national, one is regional. The regional TV broadcaster gets its money from the regional government authority together with some advertising revenue. The three national networks get their budget from public taxation as well as advertising blocks. Remember this small country also has 7 national commercial TV channels plus nearly 50 other commercial TV networks that target the Netherlands with their (subtitled) content. Think of National Geographic or Discovery as well as some local commercial TV operations. It’s a zoo! And the market is totally saturated. Advertising revenue is under pressure (especially on radio).

Omroep Brabant on the Eindhoven High Tech Campus

If you scan the TV channels (especially during the day) you’ll see that a country of 17 million cannot hope to generate enough relevant public content from within the Netherlands to fill four channels creatively. On the regional channels you’ll find a lot of webcams watching presenters in radio studios like the example above. At other times, these regional stations make between 30-60 minutes of original regional material a day and repeat it in a carrousel-format for the rest of the evening and into the following day. What some of them like Omroep Brabant, Omroep Fryslan and RTV Rijnmond make is generally good by international standards. Their costs for radio and TV production turn out to be a fraction of their counterparts in neighbouring countries. Some of the larger stations used to do quite elaborate outside broadcasts (usually at cultural events) but that has been severely curtailed in recent years.

But there are also exceptions. I think still think that AT5 in Amsterdam is more chaotic than I have ever witnessed in any capital city. But apparently they are reorganising.

From Four to Three

Dutch public radio and TV carry commercials. The argument from the commercial broadcasters and the press is that they distort the market.  The right-of-centre political parties, most notably the VVD, have said for decades that they want to reduce the number of national channels from three to two, making them commercial free. This is often referred to as the BBC model, even though it’s a model that the BBC was using in the 1970’s. Some people in the Netherlands think the BBC is still growing. In fact it is implementing a 16% budget cut at the moment.

In the letter of June 17^th 2011, the previous Dutch government said it planned a slightly different tactic. They would effectively broadened their cutting lens. Instead of reducing the national channels from three to two, they have included the regional networks, in effect going from four to three networks. 

Now the new Dutch government, Rutte 2, has announced this integration is going to happen, with the regional broadcasters looking to save 25 million Euro a year when the project is completed.

NPO control over Regional Broadcasters would be disasterous

Who will win control over the third network?

Since the regional TV distribution network has been designed so that viewers in Friesland see different programmes than in Rotterdam, it makes sense to retain this network when it fuses with the national networks in Hilversum. That means the existing Nederland 3 network becomes surplus to requirements. Since commercial TV networks have managed to blossom without building any terrestrial infrastructure like DVB-T, there doesn't seem much value in selling off the network. I guess it will go dark. 

I believe that if Hilversum gets control over the "new" third channel, it will mean that regional journalism is going to suffer the most. The national broadcasters always look for ways to cut at other places first before they look at themselves. I would argue that national broadcasters (like the BBC) have never really understood how to run regional small-scale production centres. When cuts come, they always affect regional/local stations first. And there's a definite heirachy between those who work in regional and those who work nationally. Of course, there is also a lot of pressure from local newspapers who are trying to run a commercial model in the face of plummeting subscriber numbers. They regard local public newsgathering as unfair competition. 

Ideally, the new public TV structure in the Netherlands would borrow more from the situation in Germany. Nederland 1 and 2 would be national. Nederland 3 would be a primarily a regional information network, carrying national productions (think of specialist interest) at other times. It would be a federated system. Factual news and current affairs coverage would remain in the hands of the regional centres. The other programming would be coordinated at a national level, probably by the NTR. The battles to come will involve who controls and commissions the schedule. Although, as more and more viewers are switching to on-demand, the discussion becomes more one of how to best organise how quality production rather than squabbling over who has rights to "prime time" or what constitutes a "public sport". I find the reaction from Hilversum to these government cuts to be poorly argued, confusing a discussion about being popular with explaining a role of what's meant by public.  

Let's Talk Money

Last year the Dutch government announced it was shaving up to €127 million off the national TV/radio budgets, demanding that broadcasters merge rather than co-operate, though not offering a financial incentive for anyone to do so. It wanted to bring the number of public broadcasting production houses back to 6. That plan was cooked in Hilversum.

Now, the new Dutch government has announced another €100 million is coming off the public media budget. That includes closing that separate Cultural Media fund of 16 million Euro which has been used to stimulate independent producers and film-makers to do more investigative journalism as well as creative cross-media projects. Not surprisingly, money set aside to stimulate the commercial press has not been scrapped - right of centre commercial media has always been close to the VVD. But this decision smacks more of an unfair disadvantage to the independent production sector rather than bashing public broadcasting. 

Rather than just scrapping the Cultural Media Fund, I would be inclined to rethink commissioning and innovation as a whole across national public broadcasting, especially as the old public broadcasters like the TROS, AVRO, VPRO are becoming more and more like publicly financed production companies. I think only NOS, NTR, ROOS network and NPO are public broadcasters in the true sense because they have direct access to the airwaves. NPO commissions content from what have effectively become "public-financed production" companies like VARA, BNN, TROS, etc. NTR looks as though it will get the job of commissioning stuff from the aspirant broadcasters like WNL. 

Remnants of broadcasting past are all over Hilversum and Amsterdam

Conclusion

If you don't earmark some money for experiments and innovation, then believe me it will disappear into more mindless magazine shows to fill traditional airtime. The Mediafund has been one small light of hope in the acidic cloud of despair and creative collapse that has destroyed Hilversum as a creative centre in the Netherlands. Killing that fund off, while retaining money to keep newspapers alive is sheer stupidity. And as I pointed out previously, Dutch producers need to understand that they will have to consider international markets in order to survive and grow. The Dutch market is becoming too fragmented and public opinion is dead against any subsidy models as we go through the second great depression. 

Channel 4 Model Not BBC

Gradually I think we're moving towards a system not unlike the UK channel 4 construction. This publicly-owned corporation (set up by Margaret Thatcher) has money but no programmes, production companies bid for tenders to fill the clearly defined slots. Production companies  like the VARA, TROS which are really large "loyalty schemes" because they have a membership will compete against Endemol for slots. Because this kind of membership system will collapse (why pay an extra 15 Euro a year when these membership organisations are strictly limited in what they can do for their membership), the Dutch government has further marginalized their power and influence in Dutch society. That was definitely what the VVD has been trying to do all along.

What I still don't understand

It is true that Endemol, Talpa etc have done a lot to innovate in game shows building a world-class reputation in this sector. I see lots of innovation in the games development sector and interface design as well. But when it comes to factual content creation, the great public science experiments, comedy driven factual programmes (like Qi), cross-media documentaries, and major investigative journalism formats are all being developed elsewhere in the world. Not surprisingly, the Dutch Media Hub has failed in trying to get foreign investment in the Netherlands without the right mix of technology, creatives and marketing. Because, just having two out of three spells disaster.

I still find it incredible that with the creative sector being so important to the Netherlands, that there is no public debate on its future. Yes, there is a debate by incumbents in public. But there is no public consultation period in this country like you see conducted by Ofcom or the BBC Trust in the UK. We need the equivalent of OurBeeb.com. Public broadcasting in the Netherlands has a long way to go before it does things with the public rather than making programmes for them.

Creative Collapse in Hilversum Continues

Hilversum Danger Signals

The Dutch Broadcast magazine reports this morning (in Dutch) that negotiators from the political parties in power at the moment (VVD, CDA and PVV) have started three weeks of intense negotiations on how to make another round of cuts in public spending. 


They won't be saying anything for another three weeks (officially) but they have (of course) already let slip that another round of budget cuts in public service broadcasting are on the cards. Perhaps another 100 million Euro will be taken away in 2013, on top of the 200 million they cut out of of regional, national and international broadcasting for next year. 


In the case of external broadcasting, they decimated the budget of Radio Nederland Wereldomroep bringing it down from 46 to 14 million Euro. It may well not even be that in the end. 7? 5? 0 million? It's looking that way for 2013.


The current plan for the rest basically reduces the Dutch public broadcasting from 4 channels (3 national and one regional network) to 3 channels (effectively combining NED3 with the regional's) to make a structure that looks like public broadcasting in Germany and a commissioning process which looks more like Channel 4 in the UK. Radio is hiding in the corner, hoping it won't be noticed. But it will! Commercial radio is hurting big time and they haven't forgot the unfair licensing of FM frequencies 


Yes, cuts were needed in public broadcasting which under the present ludicrous (yet still unique) system of public production companies has never been further away from its public. Unlike neighbouring countries, there is no independent body which allows citizens to influence the overall policy of public service broadcasting. There is no dialogue with those who pay for the privilege of watching and listening to (mostly) bland magazine shows spread over far too many channels. 


Yes, public broadcasting has maintained reasonable market shares; for the time being. But the current senior management teams have done little to prepare their staff for the role of public broadcasting in the most austere times we are about to witness probably in a century. And when it comes to understanding what is happening in the digital household of the future, it's clear to me that they haven't a clue. No, most people don't want to live in a shop, with sales-people on every screen. And how many searches for talent can we tolerate in a lifetime? 


Lack of Vision is Killing


I still meet mini-media moguls in Hilversum who are spending as though they were working in San Francisco. "Yes, cuts should happen - everywhere except in my programme". It reminds me of what went wrong in the Netherlands just before the great floods of 1953, when no-one anticipated that stronger, coherent sea defences were needed. It's certainly calm before the storm.


But, as long as the vision in Hilversum is traditional television, the weaker the argument towards the henchmen in the Hague - and the Dutch public who pay for it all through government taxation rather than a licence fee. I'm sure the politicians have already decided. Balancing the budget is the excuse needed to press the accelerator pedal. If Hilversum doesn't anticipate what's coming in programme and public value terms, then it doesn't have a future. Because without understanding and winning public support for it's future purpose, it has little influence with the politicians and, ultimately, no point.


So is anyone in Dutch public broadcasting working on a serious Plan B? 

"The future belongs to those who see possibilities before they become obvious." 

— John Scully 

Cuts in Public Service Broadcasting in Hilversum

Wandered in for a while to the Netherlands Public Broadcasting New Years Reception. I thought it rather bizarre that the table at the entrance had cuts of meat on it and someone chopping and slicing things at the back, but apparently I was the only one who saw the ironic connection. It looks to me as though the NPO has not updated its mailing list in a while because few of the current influential politicians turned up to meet and greet. 


NPO Director Henk Hagoort lashed out at the politicians in the Hague of all political parties warning them that public broadcasting is for the public and decisions on programming are made in Hilversum, not the Hague. The problem is that many public broadcasters have become very distant from their audiences. Unlike the UK, the NPO has no NPO Trust where the public can at least have some input and influence on what they think of the programmes. There is no licence fee system anyone. It all comes out of general taxation. I describe it to foreign broadcasters as a classic case of government pay-TV.

Some of the Dutch public broadcasters run a loyalty scheme based on the ancient idea that people want to become a member of a broadcasting organisation in order to get hold of programme details - mainly for TV. The problem is that these broadcasters do not represent all sections of society. And the NPS, NOS, FunX and NPO seem to be answerable to no-one. 


In his speech, Henk quoted a figure of 200 million streams being delivered in 2011 by the website "Missed the Transmission". Actually, that's not a lot of streams, since it only represents attempted streams that were started - not whether someone watched the programme all the way through. Only now has the audience research organisation started to issue the Internet stats on a daily basis - and the figures drop off dramatically after the top three shows. Listening to radio transmissions after broadcast is not given the same prominence. I see they have revamped the site radiocast.nl. at the same time removing the stats. Was it because they were embarrassingly low? They could take a leaf out of the BBC in this respect, who publish the monthly figures.