Funding received by public service broadcasters covered by the EBU shrunk by 0.9% in 2020, representing a loss of €320 million.
A report from the EBU, Funding of Public Service Media, says many organisations were only just starting to recover from the 2009 economic crisis and a decade of austerity. Many had anticipated stability during 2020, or even slight growth, but instead, Europe was hit with a sudden economic recession and audiovisual markets faced a steep drop in advertising revenues.
Two-thirds of EBU members had to operate with funding levels that were below forecast in 2020 and almost a third saw a drop in their predicted income of over 3%. The reduction in revenues came at a time when many broadcasters needed more resources to cope with the additional demand for news and information, educational resources and much-needed entertainment during lockdown.
Head of the EBU’s Media Intelligence Service Florence Hartmann said: “On average, citizens in the EBU area are paying just 10 EUR cents a day for all the services offered by public service media in their countries. And COVID-19 showed us just what a vital role they play.
“It is therefore critical that their financial sustainability is not jeopardized in the aftermath of the pandemic. PSM have a major economic role to play in driving the recovery alongside the entire audiovisual value chain and a major democratic role to play in reinforcing the European public sphere.”
Overall, funding of the sector has dropped by 1.2% between 2016 to 2020. When inflation is taken into account, this represents a real terms loss of 6.9%.
