The Programme to Support the Media, PROMEDIA II, has awarded a total of 137,441.12 Euros on the Cohesion islands in 2009, which corresponds to 24 applications for the measures comprised by this programme, revealed the Secretary of the Presidency in a visit to the facilities of the Graciosa Radio Station.
Although he considered that “the amount of the granted support was significant for the size of the local media companies,” André Bradford stressed that with regard to the special support scheme for the Cohesion islands, which estimates the monthly subsidisation of the power and telephone costs, “only a few media companies have applied for this measure; therefore promoting the dissemination of the programme and its importance among the potential beneficiaries is our duty.”
“If PROMEDIA is relevant to any Regional media company, mainly by means of stimulating the technological modernisation, thus reducing the production costs; it is even more evident when the market is quite small and the production structures are more fragile,” stated that governmental official.
the support technological modernisation of the media was the most sought after measure in 2009, awarding a global amount over 115 thousand Euros to the islands of Santa Maria, S. Jorge and Flores.
With concern to the measures “Technological Modernisation,” “Support to Information Dissemination” and “Initiatives of Regional Interest,” one should remind that the media companies from the cohesion islands benefit from a 10% bonus compared to the remaining islands. Under these measures, 40% of the electricity consumption costs and 25% of the telephone costs are eligible expenses for governmental subsidisation.