1. Governance and evolution of Estonian Public Broadcaster (ERR)
Indrek Ibrus, PhD

2. ERR 3 TV channels (1 in Russian) 5 radio channels (1 in Russian)
Online portal (different versions for different devices)
Activities on social media and sharing platforms

3. Popularity
Share
Kanal 2 (22.1%)
ETV (20.9%)
TV3 (16.6%)

4. Financing
State budget, decided annually - in practice never reduced year on year basis
Revenues from services
No advertising
2016 budget – 34,9 million euros

5. Convergence
Estonian Radio and Estonian Television merged officially in 2007 after two years of preparation - ERR was born
In the subsequent 9 years the process of actual integration has been slow, but steady
At the end of this year a fully converged news department will emerge - after a renovation of a building especially for this purpose.
In the new news department most journalists are expected to be ready to produce content for all channels - broadcast TV and radio, online portal, social media, content designed for mobiles, etc.

6. ETV+
The discussions on starting a Russian language channel started in 1998
In 2007 after the ‘Bronze Soldier Riots’ - some targeted funding for ETV2 as a multifunctional channel.
Russian language programming on ETV2 has been a failure - mixed programming does not work.
In 2014, after first events in Ukraine, the discussion started again.
In Autumn 2014 the Government, after the application by ERR council, decided to fund a “cross-media channel” - Russian language audiovisual content production unit with the main output to broadcast TV.

7. Governance ERR is a public service institution, it has its own law
Its council is compiled in the following way:
Each Parliament fraction has a right to appoint one member to the council
Four independent media experts
Council members cannot be:
ERR board member, auditor or lawyer
working for or owning other media service providers
members of the Cabinet

8. Council
Problems:
Some politicians in the council have had very little expertise, only see the political function
Experts that have worked for the competitors (poor definitions in the law)
No representation of interest groups

9. How could the law change?
Clear functions for online activities
Clearer rules for sponsorship announcements

10. Thank you!