The Agency for Electronic Media (AEM) has released an analysis of the use of the Fund for the Promotion of Electronic Media Pluralism and Diversity from 2016 to 2019, from which a total of HRK 147 million was allocated to publishers.

In the analysed period, radio broadcasters received the most, HRK 69.5 million, while television broadcasters got HRK 65.5 million. Electronic publications (web portals) received about HRK 6.5 million, and non-profit audiovisual producers about HRK 6.1 million, the AEM said.

Broken down by type of publisher, the average annual subsidy for the 2016-2019 period was HRK 132,817 per radio broadcaster, HRK 819,924 per television broadcaster, HRK 72,392 per electronic publication and HRK 117,235 per non-profit audiovisual producer.

Analysing the Fund’s subsidies as a percentage of publishers’ revenue in 2019, 46.6% of radio broadcasters received subsidies amounting to 10% to 19% of their revenue, and 35% of radio broadcasters received subsidies in the amount of 20% to 40% of their revenue and more.

Also, 45% of television broadcasters received subsidies amounting to 19% of their revenue, and another 45% received subsidies between 20% and 39% of their revenue, which indicates that television broadcasters depend more than radio broadcasters on the fund’s subsidies to produce non-commercial programme content.

Most funding for public information service, culture and children

Overall, over 86% of publishers said they were satisfied or generally satisfied with the Fund, 9.74% were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied and 3.9% were generally dissatisfied. No one was very dissatisfied with the Fund.

An analysis of all eight public tenders launched by the Fund in that period shows that of the HRK 147,895,684 distributed, as much as 51.47% was allocated to three of the Fund’s 16 programme categories.

Public information received 31.92% or about HRK 47.2 million, culture and heritage 11.01% or about 16.2 million, and children and young people 8.54% or more than HRK 12.6 million.

The next five categories: gender equality, upbringing and education, national minorities, cultural events and health promotion received 28.95% of subsidies or over HRK 42.8 million.

The remaining eight categories: Croatian dialects, art development, people with disabilities, environmental protection, Homeland War, media literacy and gender issues received 19.58% or slightly more than HRK 28.9 million.

“The analysis of the social impact of the Fund for the Promotion of Pluralism and Diversity for the 2016-2019 period has shown that the Fund’s existence is more than justified,” the AEM said.

(€1 = 7.57 kuna)