Despite criticisms and a 2-hour debate, the government managed to push through its plan to merge public TV and radio broadcasters STV and Sro into a single broadcasting corporation called Radio and Television Slovakia (RTS), by passing the Act on RTS.
The whole process starting on 1 January 2011 will take around three years, and should please initiator of the move, culture minister Daniel Krajcer, as he sees it as the best way of dealing with the financial troubles of the TV broadcaster, above all. He also expects the move to improve the quality of programming.
Now parliament has to elect the head of the institution together with 9 board members. The new head will have the tough task of consolidating broadcasting and getting the institution ready by 2012, when it will operate under the new system of single-allocation funding from the state budget, meaning license fees will be scrapped in January 2012.