The Rai Board of Directors, chaired by Marinella Soldi, examined and approved the draft financial statements as at 31 December 2023 illustrated by the CEO, Roberto Sergio. The financial statements show a consolidated net result in break-even and a net debt of 568 million euros, an improvement compared to the previous year and in any case attested to sustainable levels. The average net debt in 2023 was 328 million euros. The 2023 management of the Rai Group, also due to the absence of costs linked to major sporting events and thanks to the continuous attention to cost optimization, was able to allocate greater resources to the strengthening and repositioning of the offer, as well as to the financing of a extraordinary redundancy incentive plan aimed at renewing digital skills, consistently with the process of evolution into a digital media company. On the revenue front, it should be noted that advertising revenues – despite the absence of major sporting events (2022 had benefited from the collection connected to the Football World Cup in Qatar) and in the presence of the penalty deriving from the application of the further restriction on advertising crowds – they increased overall by over 22 million euros. Growth supported in particular by web revenues (+31.6%), thanks to the extraordinary performance of RaiPlay. It should also be noted the decrease in income from ordinary fees, determined mostly by the significant increase in arrears on electricity bills related to the complexity of the socio-economic context.
The Rai Group then confirms its television leadership in prime time (37.8%) and recorded a share of 37% for the entire day. Rai 1 is the first national channel both in the 24 hours (18.3%) and in prime time (20.4%), monopolizing the top positions in the rankings of the fiction, cinema and culture, science and environment genres, and is confirmed as second European channel following BBC One. The Board of Directors then took note of the 2024 summer schedules. The common thread will be sport which will light up Rai 1 and Rai 2, broadcasting, among other things, the European Football Championships, the Olympics and Paralympics, as well as the Tour de France. The board of directors meeting was then adjourned to today. At the same time as the approval of the budget by Viale Mazzini, the assembly of the Cdr and Rai trustees proclaimed the state of strike and entrusted Usigrai with a package of five days of strike.
«The Assembly contests the desire to transform the Public Service into the megaphone of the parties, and the company the mergers of newspapers lowered from above which would empty Radio1 of its all-news vocation – we read in the union note – the lack of will to call a public selection to replace the over 100 colleagues who left Rai in recent years, the failure to respect the union agreements on staffing in the TGR, the absence of resources to stabilize the temporary workers who work in the networks, the cuts to the crews and the cancellation by the top of the performance bonus”. However, Unirai will not participate in the protest as it considers the stabilization of precarious workers to be a priority, just as it will fight to resolve the issue of staff shortages within a framework of certainties regarding economic resources. We will also make our voice heard at the tables on the performance bonus so that the new agreement does not penalize anyone. But we will not participate in “political” strikes so as not to be instrumental to those who are painting the company, for electoral purposes only, as a bandwagon in decline. The data contained in the budget, approved today, fortunately speak of a situation very different from how it is intended to be represented. We remain convinced – concludes the Unirai note – that the best tool to protect workers is that of mediation, leaving aside any political and ideological conflict”.
#strike #Tempo
2024-04-21 10:27:21
