Ukrainian State-Run TV Striving to Overcome Financial Strains – Company Head
The management of the state-run UT1 TV channel has been trying hard to overcome the channel’s financial difficulties, the acting head of the State TV and Radio Company, Vasyl Ilashchuk, has said in an interview with a business daily. He said that the management has decided to declare redundant half of the channel’s personnel to be able to upgrade its technical equipment and launch new projects. He added, however, that the changes will be implemented gradually. The following are excerpts from Ilashchuk’s interview with Olena Khladskykh entitled “Head of the first button” published in the Ukrainian business daily newspaper Delo on 8 August:
Our interview with Vasyl Ilashchuk was recorded the evening before his trip to the Olympic games in Beijing, which will be broadcast by the state-run UT1 channel. The acting president of the National TV and Radio company of Ukraine talked about his accomplishments during his first half year in the post, as well as how he plans to “freshen up” the channel.
[Delo] You came to the channel six months ago. Did you bring your team with you?
[Ilashchuk] Yes. I came with my three deputy heads. But the other three vice presidents used to work at the channel, too.
[Delo] Could you name the people you rely on.
[Ilashchuk] First Vice-President for Economic Issues Mikhail Koblya. He’s just a powerhouse when it comes to these affairs. He quickly learned the ropes of the television industry. And I can’t hide the fact that today he understands many things about television better than people who have worked here for years.
[Delo] Where is he from?
[Ilashchuk] He came from Khmelnytskyy. We have been working together for a long time. My second deputy is Roman Nedzelskyy (husband of the propresidential MP Oksana Belozir – Delo). He is the first vice-president for cultural issues. Television is a show. Roman had worked on a music channel for a long time and, as a result, he understands these issues. Vice-President Andriy Chernyuk also came to the channel. He had worked for national radio for a long time, and later on television in Chicago.
[Delo] What have you been able to accomplish over the past half year?
[Ilashchuk] I was surprised when asked just one week after my appointment: “Why is nothing changing at the channel?” Everything will change gradually. Sociologists say that two years are needed to radically change a channel. The first 25 per cent of these changes will already take place from 1 September. The second 25 per cent will probably happen from 1 January 2009. We cannot say that we’ will change everything 100 per cent, but we will change things gradually.
[Delo] So again what have you been able to accomplish?
[Ilashchuk] The channel will be on a satellite from 1 September. This is one of the most serious accomplishments. But the most important thing we have been able to achieve is to get the company onto clear and transparent books. I cannot catch fish in muggy water. It’s easier for me to work in clear water and see that fish. It makes the sport more interesting. The first half year we were learning the ropes of the television company where we’re working. We were busy with economic and technical issues. That’s the biggest problem for the company today.
[Delo] Did you buy any new equipment?
[Ilashchuk] We’re currently in the process of making these purchases. Everything depends on financing. Misunderstandings in the cabinet have seriously have let us down: they cannot make any changes to the budget. We have spent all our money on broadcasting the European football championship and Bartholomew’s visit (Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople – Delo). Finances were shifted from December to July for us to cover some of our expenses. We have figured that it’s pointless to depend on the budget alone. We cannot take loans as we are a state structure. Everything points to the fact that the channel needs an individual budget or must engage in serious commercial activity to survive.
[Passage omitted: Castings for new TV presenters are under way.]
[Delo] What is your position? What will you do with the personnel who, as is well known, make all the decisions?
[Ilashchuk] I’m convinced that 1,850 people is too much for a TV channel. Even yesterday at a meeting of the state TV and Radio committee I heard remarks that a maximum of 300-500 people work at other channels that broadcast 24 hours per day. Our channel broadcasts 18 hours per day because we share our frequency with Era (a TV and radio company controlled by opposition Party of Regions MP Andriy Derkach – Delo). But we still have this huge staff. It’s ineffective. People are used to just coming to work, sitting back all day and then getting their salary at the end of the month like in old times.
[Delo] If it’s not a secret, what is an overage wage at the channel? Do they get 500 dollars?
[Ilashchuk] I don’t want to name any figures because wages vary. These are questions for our accounting department.
[Delo] But are they lower than at commercial channels?
[Ilashchuk] Significantly lower. But we are prepared to take in serious specialists and get them serious salaries to improve our channel.
[Delo] How many people could you fire who are working today without detriment?
[Ilashchuk] Today we could easily get by if we fired no less than half our personnel. But we don’t want to hurt anyone. I had worked with these people for many years and for me to now say: “You’re not needed”… [ellipsis as published] That’s painful for a person to hear. People won’t understand this until certain professional norms are introduced. However, any company director knows full well who is redundant in his team and who he can go without.
[Passage omitted: repetition]
[Delo] What creative departments would you like to improve first?
[Ilashchuk] First off, I would strengthen the informational and analytical sphere as information and analysis are what television hinges on.
[Delo] So today you need editors and authors who could make analytical shows. Is this a weak link?
[Ilashchuk] It is not a weak link. The link simply does not exist. This is why we want to launch a weekly analytical show on Sundays as of 1 September that will summarize the week we have lived through. In fact, right now we are working on this project with analysts. We will have new projects from 1 September, 1 October and the New Year that I won’t talk about at the moment. Let it be a surprise for viewers.
[Delo] Today, the UT1 channel is starting to broadcast the Olympic games. But after the agreement with Inter [TV channel] to sublicense the broadcasting of the Olympics fell through (it was believed that the supermarker network Foxtrot would be the general sponsor for broadcasts of the games in Beijing), the National TV and Radio company of Ukraine wound up without any sponsors. In any case, one week before the games we were told at the UT1 channel: “Negotiations are under way.” Could you tell who will sponsor the Olympic broadcast now?
[Ilashchuk] Our commercial director could answer these questions. He handled the sponsor search. I’ll put it this way. I’m satisfied we are the only ones who will broadcast the Olympics. Just because we didn’t give a sublicense for the 2008 [European football] championship or the Olympics doesn’t mean we need money. No. The channels that wanted to buy the sublicenses from us just couldn’t meet our conditions. And they aren’t just our conditions, they are the conditions of the EBU (European Broadcasting Union – Delo).
[Delo] It’s a known fact that the cost of being a general sponsor dropped from $2.5 million, which was the initial offer. to $800,000 and then $400,000. The cost of the official and regular sponsorship also decreased twice to become $150,000. But regardless, as far as I understand, you still had problems finding a sponsor. Why?
[Ilashchuk] A minimum of one year is needed to find sponsors for such massive promotions like Eurovision or the Olympics. But when you go to a sponsor two months or a month before the event, when the companies’ budgets are already allocated to the end of the year, they can’t make this kind of commitment. How could we cope with this if Eurovision ended, the European football championship began, the European championship ended and then the Olympics started? We just didn’t have the human resources in our commercial department.
The profile of Vasyl Ilashchuk, acting president of the National TV and Radio company of Ukraine.
Born on 20 July 1963 in Chernivtsi.
1990 – graduated from Chernivtsi State University with a degree in the Russian language and literature.
1981 – worked as a carpenter at the Chernivtsi furniture factory.
1981-1983 – served in the Armed Forces of the USSR.
1983-1992 – presenter of the TV and radio broadcasting committee of the Chernivtsi regional executive committee.
1992-1995 – presenter of the Chernivtsi regional TV and radio broadcasting union.
1995-1997 – presenter of the Chernivtsi regional state TV and Radio company.
1997-2008 – show host, presenter at the National TV and Radio company of Ukraine. For four years, he headed the production studio “Studio of exclusive TV shows”. The studio made over 50 episodes of documentaries “Along Ukraine’s roads,”"Roads of Ukrainians” and others.
From January 2008 – an advisor to President Viktor Yushchenko.
On 21 February 2008 appointed acting president of the National TV and Radio company of Ukraine.
Originally published by Delo, Kiev, in Russian 8 Aug 08; pp 8, 9.
(c) 2008 BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.