The NPO fund will be discontinued, at least in its current form. Keep the fund function: a separate amount of money for additional support for expensive series and documentaries. The Independent Advisory Committee will also be maintained. This includes radio and television producers who evaluate applications. Funds from the fund are divided among the various divisions of the nonprofit.

The Central Board of Public Broadcasting reported this in a letter to the Board of Broadcasters on Wednesday. A copy of the letter will be sent to the House of Representatives, which previously expressed concern about the fate of the nonprofit fund. The last series like general fortwin† and amazing (IRA Murders) and documentaries such as GC (Johan Cruyff) Supported by the Fund.

last november protest Radio and television makers are already against the imminent abolition of the NPO fund. They see the fund as a strong and enduring bastion of quality within the nonprofit. According to them, focusing on viewing numbers, saving costs, and broadcasting policy (keeping all broadcasters happy) can jeopardize the quality of series and documentaries. Some programs simply require more time and attention, and that costs extra money.

Read also: TV and radio nursery under fire

However, according to Mark Minkman, the NPO’s chief financial officer who has researched the fund’s future, there is no doubt about the closure because key functions of the fund will be preserved. According to him, integration is desirable to reduce the number of NPO counters where TV makers can apply for money. According to him, the integration also leads to less duplication and less confusion between the different departments of the nonprofit. For example, there are now many talent programs that can be combined. According to Minkman, a faster and more straightforward system is important in the competition with streaming services, which also manufacture Dutch series.

16 million for series and documentaries

The fund is currently operating independently, but is already part of the NPO. It was created five years ago as a successor to the discontinued media fund. Then the NPO decided to allocate sixteen million a year to expensive series and documentaries. This represents 14 percent of the total budget for series, films and documentaries (115 million).

The desire to integrate the fund into the NPO arose when the central management switched from a system of three channel managers to six type managers. This means that programming is no longer centered around the TV channel, but rather on the type of TV programme, such as “Journalism and Sports” or “Culture and Entertainment”. This is because NPO no longer just populates TV channels but also distributes their programming via streaming services such as NPO Start, NPO Plus, and YouTube. A stand-alone NPO fund is no longer suitable for this new system. The money from the NPO fund will now be split between the divisions of fiction (series), documentaries and human interests, and audio (podcasts), which will make the final decision on its destination.

The NPO leadership announced the plan on Wednesday at a meeting in Hilversum with stakeholders, including several television makers. According to those present, they emotionally reacted to the disappearance or transformation of the chest. They fear that the NPO will spend the fund’s money on something other than high-quality series and documentaries.

Confused

Fund advisor Marion Oskamp was one of the signatories to the advisor’s letter of termination last year. Oskamp is the editor-in-chief of podcasts like The fall of Srebrenica And an egg† She is confused about what exactly will change. Is the fund canceled now or not? I can not tell you. What will be modified is up to the panel.” The main argument I heard to liquidate the fund was that the decision-making process takes too long. “But that is related to the evaluation done by the committees, which the nonprofit wants to maintain.”

According to Barbara Troen, Director of Documentaries at VPRO, not much has changed: “The money is reserved for high-quality programming and commissions are kept, so I don’t understand what all these sentiments are needed. They also could have put those 16 million into the Eurovision Song Contest, so what? We complain about it? The NPO promises it will get faster and more efficient, so I think that’s a good idea.”

Addendum (May 4, 2022, 17:15): This article has been supplemented by responses from Barbara Troen and Marion Oskamp.