«The community needs it,» the MART TV channel explained why they want to switch to full maintenance with the budget of Mykolaiv in the amount of ₴13 million per year

The director of the utility company MART Vitalii Meheda explained that the full maintenance of the television and radio company in 2024 by the budget of Mykolaiv «communities needs it», because in this way residents will be able to receive information about the work of local authorities.

He said this during the city council commission on budget issues on December 19, writes NikVesti.

«Our main task after the transformation is not to make a profit, as in a commercial enterprise, but to ensure the information needs of communities. The law directly states that at least 50% of our best air time, i.e. the so-called prime time, we must devote to information releases, discussion platforms, necessarily broadcast sessions. That is, everything that may not be of interest to commercial enterprises, is not distributed with clickbait headlines and so on. But communities need it, just to receive this information,» said Vitaly Meheda.

Previously, the deputy of the Mykolaiv City Council, Serhii Kantor, expressed the opinion that he considers it inappropriate to reform the communal TV channel MART and to allocate 12.7 million hryvnias for its maintenance in 2024.

We remind you that the municipal enterprise Teleradiocompaniia MART of the Mykolaiv City Council addressed a letter to the mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych, in which he asks to provide 12.7 million hryvnias in the city budget for financing the TV channel in 2024. The company made calculations taking into account the possible adoption by the deputies of the decision to reform MART from a communal enterprise (KP) to a communal non-commercial enterprise (NPC).

Later, this issue was considered by the city council's legality and transparency commission. However, the deputies did not support this decision and recommended that this draft decision be removed from the session.

We remind that in November, the MART TV channel purchased a 5 by 3 meter LED screen for 1.5 million hryvnias.

According to the search and analytical system 007.org.ua, from the beginning of 2023, the MART TV channel received 5.5 million hryvnias from the budget of Mykolaiv and the Mykolaiv region, as well as the state budget, under contracts for the production of stories and posting of information. Most of the activities of the TV channel were financed by the Executive Committee of the Mykolaiv City Council, allocating a total of 3.5 million hryvnias.

It was previously reported that the municipal enterprise of the Mykolaiv City Council Teleradiokompaniia MART congratulated and praised the mayor of Mykolaiv Oleksandr Sienkevych, who was elected to the board of the international movement of mayors for the fight against climate change at the summit in Dubai.