RTP expects to net an extra €16.3 million

After receiving €10.4 million from the Portuguese State in two operations of capital increases in 2017 (€6.7 million in February and €3.7 in December), RTP expects to net €16.3 million through one or various increases in capital.

 

This is according to the company’s Activities Plan which states that these figures relate to the “sub-financing of the public service broadcaster to 2003 by €26.69 million, an amount penalised by the European Monopolies Commission in decisions taken in 2006 and 2011.

In other words, after a payment of €10.4 million in 2017, RTP has the right to a further €16.3 million.

The windfall will be welcome since the broadcaster has been left with a shortfall of €4 million from organising the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 in Lisbon this year.

The annual festival is costing €20 million this year, making it one of the best value-for-money Eurovision contests ever held, with Lisbon City Council, the European Broadcast Union, sponsors and ticket sales financing 80% of the event.

In its Activities Plan for 2018, RTP had forecast a €13 million loss from Eurovision which according to the document is a “wide-reaching commitment that RTP will have to manage within a logic of efficiency but also implies far-reaching costs.”