The Islamic Republic's Broadcasting Organization: The Most Loss-Making Entity in the Country; An Organization with a Large Budget for Few Audiences

The Islamic Consultative Assembly has mandated the Organization of Planning and Budget to increase the government's share in funding the Broadcasting Organization by 43% compared to the year 1402 (2023) and to consider this increase as the base for future annual increases after 1403. "Eghtesad 24" criticized the performance of the largest state media in the Islamic Republic, stating: "The decline in public interest in the programs of the Broadcasting Organization, the allocation of more time to commercial advertisements, the misuse of national resources for producing low-quality dramatic works and mixed programs, ineffective management, and factional management are among the weaknesses of this media that claims to be national." According to "Eghtesad 24," the Islamic Republic's Broadcasting Organization, with a financial turnover of 14 trillion tomans, is currently among the 17 loss-making companies and institutions in the 1402 budget and has emerged as the most loss-making profit-making entity in the country, with its losses covered by the public budget. The report states that the Broadcasting Organization is one of the most "budget-consuming" institutions in the country, which sometimes faces budget shortages for the quantitative and qualitative development of production programs, animation, documentaries, films, and series, yet the National Development Fund remains generously open for it. In the 1402 budget bill, the total expenses of the Broadcasting Organization were estimated at 13,932 billion tomans, of which less than half, i.e., 6,400 billion tomans, should come from the Broadcasting Organization's own resources, including advertisements and other economic activities, while the remaining 56%, i.e., 7,532 billion tomans, should be provided from the public budget, such as oil sales and taxes. While the Broadcasting Organization, as a "budget-consuming" organization, has seen repeated and incremental budget increases in recent years, it seems that the public should expect another significant increase in the budget of this organization in 1403 as well, an increase that, given the taxation of next year's budget, is expected to be directly transferred from citizens' pockets to the accounts of the Broadcasting Organization.