The Programme-Production Plan is the basic document of the RTV Slovenia public institution that is adopted every year for the upcoming year by the Programme Council. At a recent press conference, Director-General Andrej Grah Whatmough, Director of the Radio Slovenia Mirko Štular, and acting Director of RTV Slovenia Dr Valentin Areh, talked about the upcoming year and the aforementioned plan. “I believe that the plan is good, and the majority of programme councillors recognised this as well. This makes me very happy,” Whatmough explained. He also announced that he would appoint Jadranka Rebernik as the new acting editor-in-chief of the TV Slovenia news programme, to replace the recently resigned Manica Janežič Ambrožič.
According to Andrej Grah Whatmough, the councillors recognised the need for change. “This is the only way we will be able to develop, grow, and also enrich our content for our viewers and listeners.” He stressed that the new plan presents a new programming and production challenge. “We will address this in the months ahead.” According to the Director-General of RTV, this is their opportunity to stand alongside other European public broadcasting services, get closer to viewers and listeners, and make RTV a respectable public media outlet.
“I cannot ignore the fact that we are still facing a significant financial challenge. For a long time now, we have been facing the challenge of how to provide a stable source of revenue that will enable the uninterrupted performance of the public service, our public mission.” In the seven months since he took office, Grah Whatmough said, a lot of efforts have been focused on some micro measures, which combined had the effect of making business in the already-concluded ten months better than what was forecast at the end of the previous year. “On the other hand, we are aware that a dialogue with the founder, meaning the state, on how to ensure the long-term sustainability of our operations, will be necessary,” Whatmough explained, adding that viewers of Television Slovenia are the ones who can expect the most changes.
“It is crucial that we provide a central space for the cultural programme and cultural content here on Television Slovenia. A varied news programme will be available on the second channel.” What is also important, according to the Director-General, is that the plan also envisages that the online presence of the media outlet will be further enriched. The October launch of the 365.rtvslo.si web portal, which replaced the RTV4d web application, will also be upgraded with a mobile application for mobile phones, tablets, and even certain televisions if the financial plan is adopted. Grah Whatmough announced that the media outlet would prepare proposals for changes in the legislation governing RTV Slovenia. Namely, they are aware that the act that currently regulates the operation of RTV is outdated and does not provide the necessary flexibility.
According to the Director of Radio Slovenia, Mirko Štular, in recent years, the key commitment of Radio Slovenia has been to strengthen public radio. “To some extent, we have already succeeded in this endeavour, and we want to keep it that way in the next year, with the adopted Programme-Production Plan. At the same time, we also have to ask ourselves where we currently stand, in terms of the number of listeners, ratings, as well as achieving quality production in the public interest.” At the moment, the network of Radio Slovenia is stronger than it used to be. According to all the data they got from the two audience surveys, it is stronger in terms of reach and ratings. “At the moment, ours is the most listened network among all radio networks in Slovenia. Among the top five most listened radio programmes, two are the national media outlet’s programmes. Radio station Val 202 is in first place, and the First Programme of Radio Slovenia is in fourth place.”
As for the year 2022, Štular said that their primary focus will be young audiences, the digital portfolio and development, as well as the music content itself. “We want and need to follow the audience, their habits and expectations, and cater to them as much as possible,” he said when announcing developments in digitalisation. They want to make the radio user-friendly on all devices, to make the experience better for the users. “This is our general guideline,” he said, adding that they support Slovenian music production in each of their programmes.
The main motive for the changes was the want to actually listen to as many views, who are funding the programme, as possible
Acting Director of Television of Slovenia, Dr Valentin Areh, said that the television programmes will also undergo significant changes. Namely, the news programme is in crisis due to the drop in ratings. For example, two formerly successful news programme TV shows, Dnevnik and Odmevi, have lost more than 250 thousand viewers, which is almost half of their once loyal viewer base, since 2003. “The larger share of listeners of Radio Slovenia fills us with the hope that we will be able to follow this same path on Television Slovenia and increase the number of viewers who watch our programmes.”
According to Areh, the main motive for the changes made to the Programme-Production Plan for the year 2022 was the management’s wish to actually listen to as many viewers, who are funding the programme, as possible, and take their wishes, interests and demands into account. Namely, the citizens, as taxpayers, are the ones who finance the programme. “We are proud to be inspired by the shows of the most successful European television stations, such as the BBC, ZDF, and ORF.”
The length of the show Prvi Dnevnik (First Daily News) at 1 p.m. will be shortened to 13 minutes, which is also the length of the news show Zeit im Bild at 1 p.m. on ORF. The length of Dnevnik (the Daily News) will be shortened to 20 minutes, the same length as the shows of the same variety, Zeit im Bild at 7.30 p.m. and ZDF Heute at 7 p.m. on ORF. The length of the show Odmevi will be shortened to 25 minutes, the same length as the show Zeit im Bild at 10 p.m. on ORF. According to the new programme plan, news about culture will follow Dnevnik, and thus the news show about culture will no longer be pushed to the end of the programme, to the late evening hours. The show Slovenska kronika (Chronicles of Slovenia) will now also be broadcast on Saturdays and Sundays, which will allow the creators to introduce ten percent more content about the local and regional news.
More content is promised
The new programme will provide viewers with five more hours of educational content, eight more hours of cultural content, 65 more hours of news content, 58 more hours of entertainment, and 438 hours more sports content (mainly thanks to the Beijing Winter Olympics and the football championship in Qatar). A new evening news show will be introduced on the second programme of RTV. Special attention will also be shown to the news from around the world and an analysis of international events. This will bring 63 percent more news from around the world than ever before. They will also offer news from the fields of health, economy, consumerism, science and technology. The viewers will also not be disappointed when it comes to the sports programme, says Areh, adding that they are now trying to buy the television rights to broadcast the entire European Football Championship 2024 and 2028, the World Cup, and the matches of the Slovenian national team in qualifications and the League of Nations. “We are negotiating the purchase of rights to broadcast the matches of the Slovenian national basketball and volleyball teams.”
In 2022, there will also be more entertainment shows available during peak hours. “During the week and on weekends, we will broadcast new afternoon shows; we will carry out an extended EMA project – the project of selecting the next song that will represent Slovenia at the Eurovision contest. Towards the end of 2022, we will introduce a new show called Podarim dobim (I Give, and I Receive). We will increase the number of music shows of various genres. As part of the Plus programme, we will devote some time to revamping the show Dobro jutro (Good Morning), which reaches as much as 30 percent of the viewers,” Areh announced, adding that the cultural and artistic programme will now amount to as much as 75 percent of all shows on the television channel TV Slovenia 1, in the time slot between 8 and 10 p.m. According to Areh, viewers will also be able to watch the domestic feature series in the production of RTV Slovenia, such as Leninov park (Lenin’s Park) and Dolina rož (Valley of Flowers). Select titles of documentaries will also be produced in-house, or co-produced with Slovenian independent producers, or will be obtained through license acquisitions. Recently, RTV Slovenia has received a lot of positive responses to the broadcasting of foreign and domestic documentaries, and the share of viewers is very satisfactory. RTV Slovenia will also provide 12 new documentaries that will be produced by it.
Nina Žoher
