Dhe former director of Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, Patricia Schlesinger, has been terminated without notice. However, the legacy she left to the broadcaster determines the present and future of RBB. In what way, the new director Katrin Vernau and the chief financial officer Claus Kerkhoff took stock and presented it to the workforce on Friday. They make a “cash crash”. Result: If the RBB continues to operate as before, a positive liquidity of 160 million euros from 2016 will turn into a minus of 174 million euros in 2028. In order to stop the process, the RBB wants to save 41 million euros by the end of 2024. Savings are being made according to the watering can principle, all budget items are to shrink by 6.3 percent, the new director Vernau rules out layoffs for operational reasons, and vacancies are not being filled for the time being.
“The RBB managed beyond its means,” says Katrin Vernau. This is all the more remarkable as the broadcaster has had more income than any other ARD broadcaster since 2013 thanks to the increase in broadcasting fees and the move to its broadcasting area. In contrast to the rest of the republic, public broadcasting is doing well financially in times of war and the Corona crisis. He has not less, but more money than ever at his disposal. In the so-called fee period from 2021 to 2024, the ARD broadcasters will, according to the current forecast, earn 523 million euros more from the compulsory broadcasting fee than the fee commission KEF recognized as “financial needs”. The financial requirements for ARD, ZDF and Deutschlandradio in these years totaled 38.8 billion euros, of which ARD accounted for 27.7 billion. Of the 523 million euros that ARD additionally accrues, RBB alone takes 73 million euros. However, the ARD broadcasters are not allowed to simply spend the approximately half a billion additional revenues; they must, at the behest of the KEF, put them aside so that the sum can be taken into account when the amount of the broadcasting fee is next determined from 2025 onwards.