Flemish public broadcaster VRT and Flemish government strike deal on new management accord

The accord emphasizes the VRT must provide reliable and accessible content with a special focus on children and youngsters. The agreement stipulates: ‘In a world full of disinformation, AI and international media giants, VRT - as atrusted house stands tall’. There's also a figure attached to that: VRT and VRT NWS require the trust of at least 70 per cent of the Flemish.

VRT must also play a leading role in the fight against disinformation. It should invest in factchecking, image verification and media literacy and tackle disinformation - with a special focus on young people and vulnerable groups. The corporation should realise  15 investigative journalist projects each year.

Language and culture

VRT's offerings must also be broad, diverse, inclusive and accessible. Subtitling, audio description and Flemish Sign Language should help. In terms of sports, women's sports, G-sports and less popular sports should make up 30 per cent of sports department offerings. The aim is for the VRT to reach 85 per cent of the Flemish every week.

The management agreement also calls for attention for Flemish culture and the Dutch language, expects strong cooperation with the Flemish media sector (including through cooperation with external production houses and start-ups or through co-productions or knowledge sharing) and VRT must also work on technological innovation (think of AI projects).

Funding a bone of contention

The negotiations progressed with difficulty in recent days. Especially the discussion about the advertising revenue the VRT is allowed to raise caused friction.

The VRT board was unable to agree with the first version of the management agreement proposed by the Flemish government on Friday. ‘It was not convinced that it could carry out its mission based on the texts proposed, especially with regard to financial issues,’ VRT NEWS journalist Steven Rombaut explains.

The VRT will now need to make savings worth 16 million euros by 2030 but this will be done without any forced redundancies.

Earlier agreement was blocked due to disagreement about the amount of advertising revenue VRT is allowed to raise. ‘The money from the government, the grant, is still the main source of income, accounting for about 60 per cent,’ Rombaut explains. 'But 40 per cent of the funds VRT itself raises on the commercial market. And a significant part of that is advertising revenue, think of radio advertising and TV sponsorship."

The Flemish government imposes a ceiling of 87 million euros on the amount VRT is able to raise in this way so as not to syphon too much revenue away from the market that would otherwise be available to commercial broadcasters. However, because radio advertising revenues are falling, the VRT no longer even reaches that advertising ceiling.

Online advertising a must

This means the public broadcaster is looking more explicitly at online advertising, which still displays growth. ‘But in that area, the VRT is bound by all kinds of rules, as a result of which these revenues remain limited,’ says Rombaut. ‘It is precisely these rules that VRT wanted to see relaxed: not to bring in more advertising revenue, but to try to reach the 87-million-euro ceiling once again.’

At issue, for example, is advertising on the VRT Max platform. Now, when you want to view or hear a programme, you first see advertising (a so-called “preroll”). But VRT asked to be able to show these ads also during the course of a programme (“midrolls” in the jargon). ‘In all, this will not necessarily lead to more advertising pressure on the viewer,’ Rombaut explains. ‘But because more and more programmes and videos are appearing on VRT Max, it could generate more revenue.’

A deal has now been struck. The compromise that has now been worked out is that midrolls are not yet allowed, but VRT is permitted to raise more revenue from digital advertising formats. If that is not enough to reach the advertising ceiling, the Flemish government must examine how that deficit can be eliminated. An evaluation is planned after the first year of the management agreement.