At the request of the OSCE’s Yerevan Office, the BBC’s World Service Trust conducted an evaluation of the needs of Armenia’s Public TV Station. The aim of the review, which was conducted on July 14-18, 2008, was to spur the development of the station’s public programming. On October 17th, at the Congress Hotel in Yerevan, Michael Randall, the BBC’s Projects Manager for Europe and the CIS, and Armen Arzumanyan, Executive Director of Armenia’s Public TV (APTV), presented the results of that evaluation. (Full report transcript available at OSCE Yerevan Office website)

This initiative is of special interest since it was the Board of Armenia’s Public TV that requested the assistance of the BBC to help it become a truly public TV station. Alexan Harutyunyan, President of the Council of Public Radio and Television of Armenia (CPRTOA), even stated that the TV station is ready to pay for such advisory and managerial services.

The specialists from London not only met with the Board of Armenia’s Public TV, representatives of the Finance Division and members of the reporters and technical staff, but also with representatives of other journalistic organizations. At the time these representatives pointed out that APTV has no real incentive to implement serious reforms since at the moment it is a profitable enterprise that enjoys high ratings. In their estimation, any desire on the part of APTV to work with international experts is just an attempt to show the European \Council that the regime is heeding the criticisms levied against it regarding Armenia’s mass media sector. 

The report is peppered with numerous allusions that give basis to the doubts voiced by the journalistic community. “Representatives of the senior editorial staff at APTV said that they were officially given the task of insuring the variety of broadcast news and to guarantee the implementation of their public service responsibilities.” Despite the fact that Armen Arzumanyan told the experts that APTV is gradually improving the quality of news and are preparing for a corresponding opportune political moment, there is no guarantee that the political neighborliness’ of the regime will be long-lived and that it will not end before the next round of presidential elections.

In the report the British specialists also concluded that, “We believe that APTV possesses great internal potential to become a leader in its sector and by doing so setting a precedent in the development of public broadcasting and which can also serve as an example to be duplicated by other countries in the region. Nevertheless, we also accept that the capability to insure the spirit of public service, as expressed by APTV, is to a large measure dependent on political will and on a change in attitude on a governmental level.”

In the estimation of the BBC, APTV is a successful commercial TV station that enjoys a leader’s standing due to its ranking and which dominates the local advertising market. In 2008 its projected revenues amount to $11 million, exceeding last year’s figure by $2 million. Till now, the main focus has been on developing as a widely-viewed TV station that fills it prime-time slots with Latin American soap operas and serials, musical programs and reality shows; such content surpasse3s programming of a ‘public’ nature.

The Board of APTV, which has expressed a desire to improve, is confident that the demand for public-service programming doesn’t exist in Armenia and that the station’s revenues will suffer if they switch from entertainment-based programming to public content.

In the opinion of Alexan Arakelyan, who heads the CPRTOA’s Finance Division, “If public programming increases the number of viewers will decrease. The government will then ask, ‘why are we funding a TV station that nobody watches?’

Such opinions go a long way to prove that the CPRTOA has forgotten not only the demand for reform but that it also doesn’t fully comprehend the mission of public TV. Michael Randall reminded them of that mission by stating, “Public TV must broadcast such programs that, although not profitable, will significantly impact the nation’s educational level and culture.”

Studying the legal bases of the activities of APTV, the BBC concluded that the CPRTOA had much more influence on the programming policy of APTV than similar bodies do in Western Europe. In fact, there is no system that can insure the realization of the CPRTOA’s decisions, based on the opinions of the society at large.

Michael Randall stated, “Even though the election procedure for the CPRTOA’s President has changed, leaving his/her nomination to the President of the Republic doesn’t rule out the latter’s participation in the activities of the TV station.”

The BBC proposed the creation of a ‘editorial plan of action’ to APTV in order to: reform the station’s constitution and by-laws, the adoption of a code of ethics, the optimization of the station’s managerial structure and streamlining of the work hierarchy, rebolstering the news division and developing informational skills, assisting in the development of new programming directions and coproduction of selected broadcasts in cooperation with BBC advisors.

APTV’s Executive Director Armen Arzumanyan is certain that there will be positive results stemming from this 18 month long cooperative project. As the saying goes - let’s wait and see.