You have that tragic love drama about Ischa Meijer and Connie Palmen: IM You have classes and The Seed of Carbaat, those penetrating documentary series. Or what about the podcast The plantation of our ancestors, about the slavery past in two families. Programs that came about thanks to the money that the NPO fund put into them. Now the very existence of that fund is at stake. According to many makers, those beautiful series and documentaries are also in danger of disappearing. In the coming months, the board of directors of the NPO will decide on the fate of the fund.
Recently, Minister Arie Slob (Media, ChristenUnie) and the central board of the public broadcaster (NPO) received two fire letters in the bus. In this, radio and TV makers protest against the possible disappearance of the NPO fund. That puts 16 million euros extra annually in ‘high-quality’ TV series, documentaries and podcasts. The reason for the fire letters is a passage in the five-year plan of the NPO. The board writes in it that it wants to investigate how they can “integrate the NPO fund into the total genre policy”. The TV makers justifiably read ‘integrate’ as ‘discontinue’.
What would the Netherlands lose? The forerunner, the Media Fund, was established at the end of the eighties to counteract ‘confusion’, explains Hanneke Bouwsema. She is general secretary of the fund. ‘Vertrossing’, named after broadcaster TROS, is a term used to express the fear of the domination of flat entertainment at the time.
In fact, that fear still prevails. The emphasis on viewing figures, cost savings, and broadcasting politics (keep all broadcasters happy) can jeopardize the quality of series and documentaries. Some programs simply require extra time and attention, and that costs money. The fund has been part of the NPO for five years, but it still operates independently.
Fund adviser Marion Oskamp is one of the signatories of the adviser’s fire letter. Oskamp is editor-in-chief of podcasts like The fall of Srebrenica and Egg. She wonders: “What problem are you solving with this? Why put something new together when you have a system that just works?” It concerns 16 million euros on an NPO budget of 800 million. With another 6 tons in office costs. Oskamp: “Peanuts. So a efficiencyI can’t see it either. It sounds like the NPO is thinking: fuck off, it’s winter.”
Unnecessary
Suzanne Kunzeler, as drama coordinator of the NPO responsible for all TV series and films on the public channels, sees the importance of the fund and praises the extra quality check it offers, but also sees the disadvantages. She argues that there are too many counters. You have the drama department of the NPO, that of the individual broadcasters, and then also the fund. According to her, this leads to delays and work past each other. NPO’s financial director Mark Minkman, who conducts the research into the future of the fund, agrees. Minkman: „There are suddenly several series about Indonesia. Better coordination could help with that.”
Other people involved also mention the alleged ‘syrupiness’. You have to wait six weeks for a verdict. And you have to go through all those counters with your plan. Director Minkman: “Those are not processes that give you energy.” Drama boss Kunzeler gives an example: „We are working on The Life, a series about the Cape Verdean community in Rotterdam. But the fund’s annual budget was already exhausted. Now the entire production has to wait six months.” Ellen Dorrestein, dramaturg of AVROTROS: „The production of a series takes a very long time anyway. A lot has been postponed due to corona, so a lot is being made now. If you get a reprieve, the cast and crew are already back to work elsewhere. It’s hard to keep them together for long.” Incidentally, she says: “It is of course impossible to say whether it would go faster or slower at the NPO.”
The NPO fund would also insist on its independence so much that the broadcasters, the NPO and the fund would work at cross-purposes. Like Minkman, Kunzeler brings the example of the duplication TV series about Indonesia: one that is made, and one that was rejected. Not a disaster either, you would think, rejection is part of it, especially in Kunzeler’s drama department. But she says: “That’s how the makers get frustrated. It is inexplicable: at one NPO counter they get the green light, the other rejects them.” Incidentally, working alongside each other is only possible to a limited extent. The fund can only give money of its own accord at the very early stage of the creation of programs. A letter of intent from Kunzeler must soon be stapled to the fund application. Without that approval you can’t apply for money at all, so it’s impossible to
Most important asset
Dorrestein of AVROTROS warns against too much negativity around the fund: “I can name all the disadvantages, but the fund does function. And if it disappears, I don’t know what I’ll get in return.” Like everyone else involved, she sees the great benefits of the fund. Such as the nursery function. The fund encourages new forms, such as podcasts and web series; online drama series with short episodes for young people. The fund invests in the Causes Podcast Academy and gives screenwriters the chance to make their first attempts. Podcast maker Oskamp: “Thanks to the fund, new talents always surface.” Drama boss Kunzeler points out that the broadcasters also have talent programs, and that this also leads to duplication: “Nursery rooms are very good, but you have to link them together.”
According to all those involved, the fund’s most important asset is the committee of radio and TV makers that assesses the applications. Peer review – just like in the arts and science. The fund has a rotating pool of sixty advisors. “The committee members are the capital of the fund, and of the NPO,” says Bouwsema of the NPO fund. “In their advice, the members also provide feedback to applicants with which they can further develop their series or documentaries. Therein lies the quality that the fund adds.” An additional advantage, according to Bouwsema: the fund has close contacts with the field, more than the other departments of the NPO. Podcast maker and fund advisor Oskamp: “The fund helps you to clarify exactly what you want to make. That creative observation is stimulating.”
Director Minkman and drama boss Kunzeler say they certainly want to keep the committee of makers. But Kunzeler sees more of an advisory function for committee members. She apparently prefers to decide for herself.
‘Completely premature’
The fact that the fund is in the making has everything to do with a reform within the NPO. Now the net managers are in charge. They hand out the money and determine what will be shown on television and when. As more and more people switch from regular television to online platforms (Netflix, YouTube, NPO Start), it is better to let go of that practice of filling TV channels and making programs without pre-determining which platform they will land on. So six genre managers will soon be handing out the money. They do not think from the channels, but from their program genre (series, journalism, human interest, etc.).
For example, from March 2022, Kunzeler will become the genre manager for drama. She is currently network manager of NPO 3 and genre coordinator – a sort of transitional position. She will soon have her own drama editorial staff of about eight-nine men who will determine which series are made and which are purchased from abroad. The NPO invests about 50 million euros a year in drama and another such amount in documentaries. The work of the drama editors could double that of the fund. And according to the policy plan, the NPO strives for ‘effectiveness and efficiency’.
According to the NPO board, there is nothing wrong. In her answer to the fire letter from the directors, NPO board chairman Shula Rijxman writes that the concerns are “completely premature”. She says it’s just an investigation. The board is investigating whether “the introduction of integral programming and genre policy has consequences for the working method of the NPO fund”, and how the fund “could be incorporated into the new working method.”
Minkman, who is conducting that investigation, is full of praise for the fund and does not seem to be advocating liquidation. “To cancel? I don’t think anyone wants that.” He especially wants to look at: “How do you properly safeguard the essential functions of the fund?” According to him, the fear of the TV makers is that the separate money pot of the fund “will be placed on the programming table”, where it disappears in the big heap. But drama boss Kunzeler solemnly promises: “That 16 million, there is a fence around it, and then it will stay that way.”
A version of this article also appeared in NRC in the morning of November 15, 2021
#Nursery #radio #fire