10 thousand billion tomans media; What income does Sedavsima hide?

Charso Press: Earlier, there was a public demand for the transparency of the broadcasting budget and a campaign with this title was created. In this campaign, more than 80,000 signatories demanded the elimination of the budget for radio and television. Critics of the performance of the TV station, especially the lack of production of high-quality programs, cited as one of the most important reasons for the aforementioned request.

At present, about five thousand billion tomans of the 10 thousand billion tomans of Sedavosima is financed from the public resources of the country, and this means that the rest of the expenses must be financed from the dedicated revenues of Sedavosima.

If the wave of not buying the advertised products is effective, it will definitely cast a shadow on the five thousand billion tomans of income that is supposed to be obtained from advertisements, considering that this effect may happen with a time interval.

Since some advertising contracts are written in long-term radio and television, this effect cannot be seen immediately in the broadcasted advertisements, and to analyze the effectiveness, it is necessary to analyze the changes of broadcasted advertisements with a time interval.

Strange growth in advertising revenue

According to Table 2 of the budget bill for state-owned companies, the total cost of broadcasting is 10,283 billion tomans, which is a 61% increase compared to the previous year’s budget. A part of the expenses of radio and television, i.e. 4 thousand 883 billion tomans (without considering the construction budget), is to be financed from the public resources of the government, which is 39% more than the budget law of last year. Also, the specific income of this organization has reached 5,400 billion tomans, which is an 89% increase compared to 1400. It should be noted that due to the non-publication of the approved tables in the parliament, the mentioned numbers are related to the government bill; Therefore, it may be slightly different from the approved numbers.

According to Article 93 of the Law of the Sixth Development Plan, the government is obliged to consider at least seven tenths of the public budget as the budget of the Broadcasting Organization. Considering that in the government’s presentation bill, the public budget was considered to be 1,505 billion tomans, the government’s share in providing the budget for radio and television is estimated at 10,500 billion tomans. But the government did not include this amount for radio and television and considered a much smaller number in the budget of this organization. In this way, more than in the past, Sedavsima must feed from dedicated revenues, which means more advertisements.

The 89% increase in the number of commercial advertisements takes place in a situation where the high volume of advertisements in the past years was heavily criticized. On the other hand, in the past years, Sedavsima did not limit itself to the figures considered for advertisements and took more amounts for advertisements. So, according to one of the reports of the Majlis Research Center, in the first 6 months of 1400, Sedavasima received more than 77% of the specified limit of dedicated income from advertising.

Broadcasting of advertisements has many consequences, and it is because of these consequences that the regulatory bodies emphasize on observing its limits. Among the consequences emphasized by these devices, the increase in the sense of dissatisfaction in families with low purchasing power, damage to public trust which is the main capital of the national media, the spread of consumerism and luxury, distancing from the main missions and missions, the shifting of the priorities of media managers and the commodification of the audience. The content quality of the programs decreases compared to yellow and celebrity-oriented programs.

90% share of radio and television from the resources of the media season

Reforming the budget structure is a demand that has become a public demand in the past few years. People want the government to budget as transparently as possible and to announce the details of expenses to the people. Perhaps these demands are one of the factors of reducing the budget of TV and Radio in 1401.

In the media chapter, there are four subcategories, the share of each of them is as follows: Broadcasting 90%, Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance 9.4%, Islamic Propaganda Organization 0.5% and Supreme Council of Seminaries 0.1% .

The total credits for the media season are 5,876 billion tomans, which is about six percent less than the previous year. Of this amount, about 5,200 billion tomans (in terms of the construction budget) is the share of Sedavsima.

The ratio of the dedicated income of the broadcasting organization from commercial advertisements to the total budget of the organization is 39%. This number was 31% last year, so the share of commercial advertising in the national media budget this year has increased.

Sedavsima did not implement the law

An important point in the state resources section of the broadcasting budget is that this organization does not perform transparently despite feeding from the public resources of the government. Despite receiving at least half of its budget from the government, Sadaosima does not publish its financial statements and does not provide them to the representatives.

Sedavsima is actually considered in the sector of state-owned companies and one of the government’s subcategories. It is now the fourth year that state companies, based on the resolution of the parliament, are obliged when submitting the budget bill, which is due in November. Provide their last year’s financial statements as well.

During this period – regardless of this year, when the results of sending financial statements have not yet been announced by the Parliament – Sadasima has not submitted its financial statements. In fact, Sadaosima was among the companies that disobeyed the law in the past three years and did not submit financial statements and the manner of spending to the parliament. Therefore, in these years, parliamentarians were not able to check the expenses of radio and television and in which of the government resources were specifically spent.

The fact that Sedavsima has not fulfilled its legal duty becomes more sensitive when we know that in the past years, this organization has received funds from the public sources of the country; He also took some money from the foreign exchange resources of the National Development Fund to spend on the production of audio and video content. Specifically, according to the official announcement last year, 150 million euros from the resources of this fund were planned for this organization to be spent on construction projects related to this organization and the production of technological and creative programs.

In 1401, however, the lines related to radio and television were removed from the resources of the National Development Fund, and the foreign exchange resources that were always paid to radio and television in the past years came from the strategic reserves of the country; It was decided that this is a positive action by the government.

Of course, it should also be pointed out that disobeying the law of submitting financial statements is not unique to the Broadcasting Organization and more than 80 government companies, including the Subsidy Targeting Organization, did not submit their financial statements.

The law of adding a note to Article 182 of the Internal Regulations of the Islamic Council which was approved in August 2018 says: State companies are obliged to submit the annual budget to the Parliament one month earlier than the deadline for submitting the budget bill so that the Parliament has enough time to review the budget of the companies. to have Also, according to this law, companies are required to submit last year’s budget performance, audited financial statements, approved budget performance for the first six months of this year, and an evaluation report based on financial and performance indicators by November 15 of each year.

A review of the performance of state-owned companies in the last three years shows; Sedavsima, along with a number of other state-owned companies, refused to submit their financial statements. Meanwhile, companies that receive credit from the country’s public budget must have transparent performance and publish their financial statements.

However, this organization has not fulfilled any of the legal obligations neither in 2018, nor in 2019, nor in 1400, including the presentation of financial statements and the presentation of the auditor’s opinion.

The withdrawal of the Broadcasting Supervisory Council from the media chapter

In the absence of the parliament’s supervision over the budget of the radio and television, the supervisory council of this organization performs supervisory duties. However, the duties of this council are not in the scope of budget performance and it is responsible for monitoring the performance of the organization in content production and regulation. Until last year, this council used to receive funds as one of the lines of the media chapter, but since last year, it has been removed from the media chapter and has been defined as one of the budget lines in the presidential institution department.

In practice, with this work, more independence has been given to the supervisory council. Based on Article 175 of the Constitution and the law on how to implement this principle, this council supervises the operation of radio and television with the presence of representatives of the three powers. The budget for the Supervisory Council this year is 9 billion Tomans. In this year’s budget, although the credit of the construction sector has been removed, the total budget of this sector has increased by 8% compared to 1400.

Hasan Khoshpour, a former expert in program organization: Incomes that Sedavosima hides

Sedavsima hides a part of its own revenues every year in order to share more from the government’s public resources. This is a challenge that, according to Hassan Khoshpour, the former senior expert of the Program and Budget Organization, has existed between the TV and the government and the parliament in the past years. In this way, in the event of a drop in the dedicated revenues of Sadao-Sima, this organization will be able to participate more in the country’s annual budget.

In the following, you will read the details of this expert’s conversation:

Sanctions by some radio audiences for advertised products; It has strengthened the possibility that the exclusive and advertising revenues of the national media will decrease. Considering the fact that Sedavsima earns from public sources, doesn’t this event cause Sedavsima to receive a larger share of the country’s budget in the next year?

Since last years, Sedavsima always receives funds from public sources. However, according to the income from advertisements and companies that operate in the subgroup of this organization, there is a criticism that the share of the government budget from the total budget of TV and radio should be reduced. When the government was facing a lack of resources, there was a challenge between the government and the radio station that this organization hides a part of its income in the advertising sector and takes as much of the government’s public resources as possible.

Can’t the government identify hidden incomes by reviewing financial statements?

The budget of radio and television is included in the budget of state companies. This year, in the budget law of 1401 and in the implementation of this law, by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance and the Program Organization, by-laws have been approved that oblige all state companies to take certain actions. One of these duties is the disclosure of financial statements within a certain period every year. These companies are required to submit their financial statements in the established systems, and based on that, budget transparency will increase. If the companies violate this regulation, they have committed a violation.

Now, let’s go back to your first discussion, if the dedicated income of radio and television is reduced for any reason, its dependence on public resources will definitely increase. However, in order to prevent any exploitation of this event, it is necessary to accurately determine the performance of the radio and television and to fully disclose the financial statements.

In 2018, the parliament passed a similar law. According to this law, state-owned companies are obliged to submit their financial statements to the parliament in November every year, but in the past years, Sadasima has not submitted its financial statements.
According to the note added to Article 182 of the internal regulations of the parliament, the program organization and the government must submit the attached budget of state-owned companies by November 15. If this attachment does not have the budget of a company; It is incomplete and cannot be presented. In practice, the broadcasting budget must be included in the appendix. If a company does not provide a budget, the program organization has the authority to estimate and provide the company’s budget itself.

I do not mean the annual budget. Sadasima has not announced the financial statements and performance of last year.

Failure to disclose financial statements is against the law, and if a company does not provide financial statements, it has violated the law. According to the new regulation, not only the companies must announce the financial statements of the last year, but also the performance of the six months of 1401 must be entered in the system by October 15.

Sedavsima is one of the largest collections of the media section in the government’s general budget. Almost 90% of the media sector’s credits go to radio and television, however, this government budget only covers half of the expenses of this wide and long organization, and the rest must be provided from advertising.

These days, the revenues of the radio advertising sector have also been challenged. The wave that started in the virtual space and demands not to buy products advertised on radio and television, can affect this part of the organization’s income. This wave has started following the performance of radio and television, which some audiences do not consider favorable.

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