Paris (AFP)
Radio France on Friday adopted a balanced budget for 2020, for the third year in a row, despite the fall in public funding and while strengthening investments in digital and modernization of tools (studios, cabins ...) , according to a press release.
The radio group is subject, like other companies in the public audiovisual sector, to economic measures. By 2022, the state funding should drop by 20 million euros.
The group plans to adapt to a savings plan through 299 job cuts, against which employees have been on strike for more than 25 days, a movement suspended for the holidays but which could be renewed in January despite new proposals from the direction.
In its 2020 budget, Radio France is strengthening the resources allocated to digital projects, with investments of 9 million euros which will relate to personalized radio, voice assistants, applications and group sites.
The budget dedicated to professional training is also on the rise (+900,000 euros) as is that dedicated to the modernization of business tools (+11.4 million to reach 89 million euros).
This envelope will be used in particular to modernize production tools (antenna recording studios, production and post-production booths, etc.).
The group will devote a little more than 42 million euros to the rehabilitation of the Maison de la radio, its headquarters, and nearly 11 million to the movable and immovable heritage of the France Bleu network and the headquarters.
"This investment policy will be supported financially by the State (...) as the Minister of Culture Franck Riester reaffirmed in a letter addressed to the president of Radio France", indicates the group, without specifying to which height.
On the expense side, the payroll should be stable compared to the 2019 budget, while on the resources side, an increase of 7.1 million euros is expected, thanks to an increase in advertising revenues, particularly on digital.
The group is also counting on patronage and stresses that the final adoption on Thursday of the corporate sponsorship scheme in the draft finance law will give Radio France musical groups the possibility of benefiting from this type of funding in 2020.
© 2019 AFP