July 9, 2008 

Sir,

This has reference to the story ‘More hype, less action’ in your edition of Wednesday, July 2, comparing government funding for the private media and the Bhutan Broadcasting Service.

In the story, as in the intervention in the National Council which led to the article, one fundamental issue has been overlooked.  BBS, as the national public service broadcaster, is a wholly government owned corporation, governed by an independent board.  As such, the operations of BBS are necessarily funded out of the government budget.  Given the extremely high costs of TV broadcasting, and of nation-wide radio and TV coverage, BBS will have to continue to be funded in this manner, otherwise, it will not be possible to sustain its operations.  Private media, on the other hand have, of their own volition, taken licenses to operate on the condition, inter alia, that they have adequate credible resources to fund their operations.        

When the government has chosen to support the private media by allocating Nu 4 million for the next financial year, which I believe is happening for the first time, it is surprising that the private media have taken issue with the BBS budget allocation.

With regard to commercial advertising, BBS does not “compete” with the private media.  It may be noted BBS does the minimum possible, keeping in mind its public service mandate, despite the fact that, as a corporation, BBS is expected to generate revenue to meet some costs that are not met from the government budget. In our current broadcast, we dedicate about 94% of TV airtime and 97% of radio airtime to public service programming, not including special live broadcasts during important national occasions including elections or parliamentary sittings, which are completely free of any commercial advertising.  Moreover, most of the commercial advertising that we air is produced by private production houses.  BBS is the platform on which such advertising has to be aired, as no other media in Bhutan can provide such a platform and outreach.  Commercial advertising on radio, where BBS could be seen as a possible competitor, is negligible.

In addition, during the past year, we have spent an equivalent of 79% of the revenues that we generated on purchase of films, documentaries, serials and music from local private production houses.  This is a partnership that BBS intends to continue.

BBS is compelled to send this letter, as it finds itself repeatedly drawn by the private media into situations where it is a secondary player.  BBS believes that the private media could actually better address itself directly to its primary interlocutor in each instance, without having to drag BBS into the fray.

                               

Pema Choden

Managing Director

BBS