The public radio and television broadcasting service NERIT is expected to go live and replace the current interim “DT” broadcasting service later this year.
Funding for the new public broadcasting service will come from a 3-euro charge that will be integrated into DEI’s electricity bills, similarly to how the previous public broadcasting service ERT was funded. The charge for ERT was 4.24 euros and generated about 300 million euros, of which 245 went towards operating costs.
The cost of NERIT’s operation has been estimated at 101 million euros per annum and the government expecting to collect 191 million euros from its charge. The additional 91.4 million euros collected via DEI will go towards the state budget’s primary surplus for 2014.
Even though there is no indication as to when ERT’s replacement service is going to go live, taxpayers are called to pay for NERIT’s non-existent services as of January 1st.
