[balkaninsight]

The board of directors of BHRT, Bosnia's state television, announced on Monday that the network will temporarily stop the production and transmission of its programmes from June 30 due to the financial hardships that it is currently experiencing.
"State institutions have not been able to find a solution... to the financing of the public service," the board of directors said in a statement.
"We are forced to take this decision, which only announces the real circumstances which will occur after June 30, when the current system of [financing] the radio-television system in Bosnia will expire," they said.
In recent years, BHRT has faced increasing financial problems, due to the constant fall in revenues collected through the tax that every owner of a TV set should pay - around 3.8 euros per year - which constitutes the main source of income for Bosnia's public television service.
The board of directors also mentioned the debts that Bosnia’s two entities' television networks, RTRS (Radio-Television Republika Srpska) and FTV (Radio-Television of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina), have built up over the years, because they didn't transfer to BHRT the revenues from the some of the taxes they collect and commercials they sell, despite being legally obliged to do so.

"The total debt that the two entities' networks have with BHRT is 12.77 million euros: Radio-Television FBiH 8.4 million euros, and Radio-Television RS 4.49 million euros," the board of directors said.
BHRT has repeatedly asked Bosnian Council of Ministers in recent months to approve a reform of the law on the public radio-television system, in order to solve the long-standing problems of its financing.
However, so far the Bosnian Parliament was only able to approve a temporary extension of the current system until June 30.