Council for Electronic Media Concluded the Interviews for BNT Director General

On 22nd of August, Bulgaria’s Council for Electronic Media (CEM) held interviews with the next 3 candidates for the post of Director General of the Bulgarian National Television.

The interviews were broadcast live on BNT2 channel.

A total of six candidates were admitted to this stage of the selection procedure. The interviews with the first 3 candidates Sasho Yovkov, Valeri Todorov and Toma Ivanov took place on 21st of August.

The other 3 candiadtes Ivan Garelov, Konstantin Kamenarov and Emil Koshlukov were interviewed on 22nd of August.

Ivan Garelov presented his biography as evidence of his qualities as a candidate. The former host of "Panorama" programme said he had more global views on the development of the public service broadcaster and his main goal was to make BNT a strong public media and therefore he entitled his concept "BNT - Restart". According to Garelov, public television has to enter into direct competition with the two commercial TV stations and therefore offers to move the main newscast "Worldwide and in Bulgaria" to 19:00 (currently aired at 20:00).

He said he had started his career as a reporter at BNT before becoming the of "Panorama" show. He has experience in the commercial televisions, he wrote three books and added that BNT would be a good finale of his professional path.

The main goal of Ivan Garelov is to make BNT a strong public media.

In addition to changing the start time of the main newscast, Garelov also suggested slots with comments in the newscasts.

Among his suggestions is BNT1 channel to focus on information and current-affairs programmes and BNT 2 to focus on culture by attracting the most difficult audience, in his words - the educated people who have specific quests and expectations. According to him, BNT World channel should present Bulgaria's tourism opportunities and BNT HD channel should further develop as a sports and youth channel.

According to Garelov, the financing should be based on percentage from the Gross Domestic Product, because this way he said BNT would reach maximum independence.

Konstantin Kamenarov, another candidate for the post of BNT Director General, said his concept was based on realistic and achievable ideas within a conservative funding. He pointed out that the budget currently available to the public media is extremely insufficient and gave an example that it was twice as big as 15 years ago.

According to Kamenarov, news and current affairs are the backbone of the public service broadcaster that has proven itself over time and "Worldwide and in Bulgaria" news programme has become an undisputed leader on the television market. But in order not to remain a "lonely island", as he described it, programming is very important for BNT in order to become a real alternative to commercial TV stations.

According to him, BNT should focus its entire technical and human resources on making products of increasingly better quality.

As regards marketing, Kamenarov said that a unit should be set up to work towards additional funding, which can be done by attracting funds from European programmes. He did not rule out the possibility of attracting additional funds through project work together with large corporations, which he believes will not in any way interfere with the fulfillment of the public mission and function of BNT.

He placed a very high emphasis on packaging because he thinks that is what sells the TV product nowadays.

According to Kamenarov, there should be one main, polythematic channel and BNT1 should remain as such and there should be a bunch of other channels. BNT2 will focus on culture and education, he added.

The philosophy of decision-making in the production of products by BNT should be changed, he said and thus it is necessary to create a “Bible of golden rules” that apply to all.

The hearings stage of the selection procedure was concluded with the interview of Emil Koshlukov.

In his concept and the answers to the follow-up questions, he opted for larger multiplatformity of the TV, including the use of various social media and platforms, as well as for curbing commercialisation. He said that the public service broadcaster is obliged to cater for the whole public audience.

Koshlukov told CEM members that during the past 12 years he had worked in many of the major TV stations in Bulgaria, which gives him enough experience to be able to cope with the post of BNT Director General. He stressed that the audience should select the content and the devices on which they want to view it. That's why he believes the future of BNT is tied to many devices and platforms.

In terms of the challenges BNT faces at the moment, he pointed to the commercialisation of many programmes, the social media that choose their own content, and the fact that anyone can generate content.

He stressed that BNT should cater for the requirements and expectations of the whole society, not only for the momentary needs of the audience. Therefore, according to him, BNT needs to be constantly updated. Another point in Koshlukov's concept was that there should be career development rules to let TV employees know what level of hierarchy they can reach.

A special focus in his concept was placed on people with disabilities and ensuring of television content for them by subtitles for deaf, sign language interpreting, etc.

He also emphasized the importance of making own BNT content for children, rather than broadcasting readily available productions. Regarding the Multimedia Directorate, according to Emil Koshlukov, it is necessary to have editors responsible for the content on the various internet platforms and a cross media newsroom.

According to Koshlukov, it is also necessary to build loyalty in viewers towards the "BNT" brand. In his view, the audience should determine what content to be placed on the various Internet platforms, because in each country the audience uses different platforms.

With regard to programmes and channels, Koshlukov said he would not make radical changes before getting aware of the teams and the way their work. Unlike most other candidates, he did not express intention to change the concept of the BNT2 channel, stressing that he needed such a regional channel and gave some good examples of the channel programmes, such as "Outdance Me".

Koshlukov said that there is a need for public discussion on funding.

On 23^rd of August, BNT 2 will air the voting for the new BNT Director General.

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