Bulgaria

[BG] Increase of Public Financing of Bulgarian National Television in 2013

IRIS 2013-2:1/12

Rayna Nikolova

New Bulgarian University

On 21 December 2012, the Законът за държавния бюджет на Република България за 2013 г. (State Budget of the Republic of Bulgaria Act 2013) was promulgated in the "Official Gazette", Issue 102. The Act points out the state subsidy which will be provided for the public national broadcaster Българска национална телевизия (Bulgarian National Television - BNT). The sum amounts to BGN 70,128,000, which equals an amount of EUR 35.7 million.

According to Art. 70, para. 4 of the Закон за радиото и телевизията (Radio and Television Act - RTA), the State subsidy shall:

1. be provided for the preparation, creation and dissemination of national and regional programme services; the amount of the subsidy shall be determined per programming hour on the basis of a standard endorsed by the Council of Ministers;

2. include an action grant for tangible fixed assets according to a list endorsed annually by the Ministry of Finance.

In comparison with the previous year, the amount of the budget subsidy has increased by nearly 3 million BGN (circa EUR 1.52 million, see IRIS 2011-3/9). Consequentially, the state budget subsidy still constitutes the major part of BNT’s financing.