"Since April 2018, there has been no money allocated in the budget for the payment of broadcasting, allocated by the Verkhovna Rada to the Public. This has led to the emergence of arrears to RRT in the amount of 75.12 million UAH. The distribution of expenditures from the state budget of Ukraine for 2018 indicates that the financial support of the National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine is only 776 563.1 UAH, which is half the amount guaranteed by the Law of Ukraine "On Public Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine". The halved funding does not provide the necessary funds for the payment of broadcasts,” - they report in the NPTU.
The Public notes that to pay for all NPTU broadcasts, 340 million UAH per year is needed, but only 51 million UAH is allocated and provided for in the passport of the budget program.
The NPTU has repeatedly appealed to the government regarding the critical situation due to illegal underfunding and warned that this could lead to the shutdown of analog broadcasting.
"Now the board of PJSC "NPTU" is forced to state the unwillingness of the authorities to finance public broadcasting, which led to the suspension of analog broadcasting of the UA: FIRST channel. The RRT Concern has informed the NPTU that the suspension of analog broadcasting of "UA: First" will take place daily from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm and will last until the debt is repaid,” - the official statement says.
The NPTU states that the disconnection of analog broadcasts will most affect viewers in small settlements - small towns and villages, as there are no cable operator networks there.
"Until the restoration of analog broadcasting, viewers living in the specified regions will be able to watch UA: FIRST exclusively in digital format (DVB-T2), as well as on cable channels and on the Internet on the official website,” - they report in the NPTU.
Members of the Committee on Freedom of Speech and Information Policy at a regular meeting on June 6, 2018, unanimously decided to inform the Cabinet of Ministers and the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine about the inadmissibility of underfunding the NPTU. Since it was precisely due to the lack of funds that the broadcast of the first channel of Ukrainian Radio in the medium-wave range in Taranivka, Kharkiv Oblast, and the World Service of Ukrainian Radio through the Luch radio transmitting center in Mykolaiv Oblast was stopped on February 1.
Recall that on December 7, 2017, the Verkhovna Rada adopted the law "On the State Budget of Ukraine for 2018", which allocated 776 million UAH for the financial support of the NPTU. This is half the amount provided for by the Law "On Public Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine", which in 2018 should have been at least 0.2% of the expenditures of the general fund of the state budget of Ukraine for the previous year, amounting to at least 1,540,000,000 UAH.