Freies Fernsehen Salzburg celebrates its tenth anniversary – mnews – medianet.at
SALZBURG. The non-commercial community TV broadcaster FS1 – “Freies Fernsehen Salzburg” – took stock on the occasion of its tenth anniversary on Thursday. Since 2012, 3,900 hours have been produced in-house, 87,600 hours have been broadcast and 6,122 people have been trained. Managing Director Alf Altendorf called on the federal and state governments for an “overdue reform” of media subsidies on Thursday.
“More than ten years ago there were repeated calls for at least partial use of the state media tax for media subsidies,” explained Altendorf at a press conference. It is unacceptable that a large proportion of the GIS fees – in 2022 it will be around 15 million euros – would flow into the state budget every year, but then hardly any funds would be raised for media subsidies. The contribution of the State of Salzburg from this income is currently 0.65 percent or 96,500 euros together for Salzburg’s Community Medien Radiofabrik and FS1.
Altendorf appealed to the federal government to “finally tackle” the increase in the non-commercial broadcasting fund (NKRF) stipulated in the government program. The financial possibilities of FS1 are tight. In the two companies “BetriebsgesmbH” and “InfrastructurgesmbH” a total of 650,000 euros would be turned over.
Almost exactly ten years ago, on February 16, 2012, the FS1 program went on air for the first time on the Salzburg AG network. Initially, pre-productions, primarily from the Salzburg cultural scene, were broadcast using a transmission server from the basement of the art district on Bergstrasse in the city of Salzburg. The studio only opened there in June 2012.
Prior to this, two years of work had been done to set up a network of cooperation partnerships. Through intensive lobbying at the city and state of Salzburg, the necessary co-financing for the 90 percent federal funds – national broadcasting fees from the non-commercial broadcasting fund – could be provided. “The state of Salzburg in particular – at that time still with the SPÖ culture department under David Brenner – presented itself as a hurdle and tried to block the station,” said a broadcast by FS1 today.
However, the project could not be prevented. The share of federal funds was too high, so that only small grants from the city and state were necessary. The support from Salzburg’s civil society was also great. And the professionally raised, stable company is a guarantee that despite democratic elements for the program makers, business was successful.
The last two years in particular have been “extremely successful” for FS1. “Due to the pandemic, the broadcaster was founded as THE partner for digital implementation for Salzburg’s independent cultural scene,” explained program manager Markus Wisdominger-Herrmann. He is currently planning further initiatives in this direction, such as the ongoing evaluation of his own online platform for culture.
The FS1 anniversary year is accompanied by a multimedia – online, radio and TV – campaign with the claim “FERN10”. The anniversary will end with a big public station party at ARGEkultur on Saturday, July 2nd.
Community TV is advertising-free, independent television with a local reference and represents a third pillar in the television landscape alongside public and private commercial broadcasting. With low-threshold access, it should be easy for all sections of the population to watch television independently. (Red)