If you want to develop a modern media company and reach a wide audience, you need ‘tractors’, then you have to invest in people who can reach that audience. That is what the CEO of VRT Frederik Delaplace said in the Flemish Parliament about the investment of the public channel in screen faces.
Frederik Delaplace came to present the annual report of the VRT in the Flemish Parliament. It is the first time that this annual report provides some transparency about the exclusivity contracts of the screen faces and radio voices. In addition to six popular names that earn more than €300,000 a year, there are also eleven contracts with a value between €101,000 and €300,000 and two that are worth less than €100,000.
However, the annual report does not say who is associated with those contracts. The names of Niels Destadsbader, Tom Waes, Philippe Geubels, Karl Vannieuwkerke and Jeroen Meus were already circulating in the media.
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There are many successful programs of the VRT that we have to admit that they would not be so successful if they were not made by and with the figures they make today.
“There are a lot of successful VRT programs that we have to admit that they wouldn’t be so successful if they weren’t made by and with the figures they make today,” said Delaplace, with a slide from Destadsbader in the background. “There’s a price to that. At times a solid price. And I’m damn well aware that that’s a lot of money, but they’re employees that we say should recoup those investments.”
Delaplace added that the investments in the screen faces are in line with the market and that the contracts that the VRT concludes with them “are clear, correct and unambiguous and that the rights and obligations are literally formulated in them”.
Competition and Diversity
“Obviously we are in the competitive field with the commercial media companies. That cannot be otherwise, but we have simply chosen to develop a public broadcaster that is strong and that can compete with the commercial media,” says Delaplace. “Moreover: that keeps everyone sharp. It is because we make good radio and TV that we encourage our competitors to make strong TV and radio.”
The CEO acknowledged that among the nineteen screen faces – only four of them are women – there is more need for diversity. “They are not young enough, not feminine enough and not diverse enough. That has to change. Our selection of screen faces is not a good reflection of how society is made up.” In the coming years, the VRT also wants to work on a screen face with a visible disability. “We want to make that commitment as VRT, but it takes time to get there. We have to build this up and make it happen in the coming years.”
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