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"RTSH" MUST BE SHAKEN!

2025-04-10 18:25:00, Editorial CNA

"RTSH" MUST BE SHAKEN!

Public Radio Television has sparked a major debate after a statement made by Agron Shehaj, the chairman of the "Mundësia" Party, who said in front of the public television building that it should be closed down because it was misusing 30 million euros per year.

There were many reactions from artists, singers. There are different positions. Someone claims that it really should be closed because 30 million euros have been wasted, someone else says that it should be reformed, someone else says that the concept of its management should be changed, and so on.

Even Sali Berisha promised to change RTSH when he came to power in 2005. Edi Rama promised the same, but in fact neither of them did anything.

RTSH has been considered not only as a vote bank but also as a job bank where political figures have been sneaking in and out.

Ministers, parents, MPs, cousins, spouses, their relatives, etc.

What does RTSH need?

A short and simple answer: “RTSH needs to be shaken up.”

Today, the budget of Albanian public television is actually around 28 million euros . It is probably there, maybe even bigger than the budget of “Top Channel” or “Tv Klan”. Private televisions have the audience, but in fact public television needs to be in place.

Leaving aside even the most critical, a public media that has produced for decades not only festivals and New Year's concerts, when it was once the only screen where the party informed the people and so on, the country needs a public media, but not at such costs and not mismanaged.

RTSH uses around 28 million euros, of which most of the funds come from taxes paid by citizens on their energy bills, the amount of which is around 17 million euros per year, and 8 million are provided from the state budget, making 25 million euros, and 3 million euros are taken from advertising, making 28 million euros.

Meanwhile, if you look at the budgets of public televisions, most of the income comes directly from advertising.

So, RTSH has a problem with the audience and a problem with advertising.

At the moment there are no advertisements, it means that the audience is low because the market does not demand advertisements on RTSH, they do not go there to appear, and there is a simple answer to this, the audience is almost non-existent.

But let's look at it from another perspective.

Has RTSH had any golden moments?

It's not a shame to say that there was a golden moment with less money, so, not with 28 million euros, but with fewer funds.

During the time that public television was run by Thoma Gëllçi, it took over all sports rights and Albanians turned their screens away from RTSH.

At that time, an application called "RTSH tani" was also created, which later stopped working.

During the time under the direction of Thoma Gëllçi, it is true that we watched more programs and saw more production on RTSH, and in our homes they turned to sports and something else.

"RTSH" MUST BE SHAKEN!

It wasn't just Eurovision and the End of Year Festival to watch on RTSH, but something has to change.

RTSH entered the market, into competition.

What happened next?

The squabbles of an incompetent board led by a man with a conflict of interest from a "crazy pensioner" destroyed this television station.

Clashes with directors, conflicts, arguments began. Board members wanted projects for their own pockets and so on.

Meanwhile, year after year, 20 million euros were disappearing.

From that time until today, after the departure of Thoma Gëllçi, in the spring of 2021, then Enkelejd Joti came, Alfred Peza came, now Aurora Polo is in charge, a destructive board continued to function that led this television towards ruin.

So, RTSH is a case where building a board for political interests by placing an irresponsible person at its head can bring these consequences.

Thoma Gëllçi left, Enkelejd Joti came, he also left after conflicts with the board, Alfred Peza came, he also left after a scandal and he was again in conflict with the board and the board then completely dissolved, after being caught in a pure conflict of interest and it was realized that he was the problem.

It's not like the board was fighting corruption. The board wanted to take the projects and put them in its own pockets.

RTSH needs to be shaken up, it needs a deep structural reform, which should be followed by another reform, that of managing the institution efficiently with few funds, to make the television more popular and, as more popular, to have more marketing, to expand its income and if it has more income from the work of the employees themselves, from marketing, from production, then it can also deepen investments.

But it cannot happen that it takes bags of money from the state budget and Albanian taxes and remains like a languishing building without doing anything, where there is corruption and money is stolen from projects that supposedly compete in the market with incompetent names that vegetate, but also with talented names that are probably paid much less than they are worth.

It needs a deep structural reform to make it more competitive in the market for salaries, not only for marketing or advertising, but to have more capable and talented people to produce shows, programming, as befits a public national media, and to have a product that can be marketed.

If no one sees it, no one needs it. The only salvation for RTSH is to shake it up once and for all.

Can the shake-up be done with this new board or with the new director?

It is hopeless. It will continue the same. This is what has always been promised for RTSH and it has continued on its path. No one has yet had the courage and strength to positively impact Albanian public television, not simply by managing the structure and capacities it has, but by entering into a very deep reform, which should make it competitive in the market since the madness of the hundreds of antennas that we see on mountain after mountain in Albania, some placed by the "Klan", some placed by "Top Channel", some placed by RTSH, some placed by mobile companies, tower upon tower.

When everyone could simply share the costs and RTSH could increase its revenue and come out with a huge profit.

Beyond what we mentioned above about marketing, administration, talent, and production, RTSH now has less value than ever, just as we mentioned the example above that in the time of Thoma Gëllçi with less money it was the most watched television, today with more money no one watches it.

This is the problem that RTSH has. It does not have a clear vision to manage it, to run it well and to make it competitive in the market. / CNA





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