SAVE the public TV channel

I think I remember writing about the subject of a public TV broadcaster, in the sense of a network of TV channels funded by the people and with a public agenda, much like the BBC of the UK.

Last week a piece of news caught my attention, which said that TVR1 the main TV station in the Romanian PBS has fallen in viewership behind most of its competition (even new entry Kanal D) (and yes, I know about this). I think someone should note that this is the conspicuous result of a string of actions to mess with the management of TVR 1 which culminated with a pathetic and silly "public stoning" of Tudor Giurgiu, and the ridiculous appointment of Alexandru Sassu to the position of GM. A good friend of mine would say at this point, why call Giurgiu a success and Sassu a stupid failure. I have no data, no exact knowledge of the background of the two, no understanding of the amount of good or evil in real terms, they may have worked upon the TV station. And he might be right. BUT what is painfully obvious is that while on Giurgiu's time, TVR 1 managed to raise itself from the dead and become something my generation might consider talking about with excitement (i am 29 BTW), for the past 1 year I have on occasion turned to TVR1 only to switch back to Discovery in horror at seeing some of the least successful faces of Romanian TV paraded on TVR 1 in prime time.
Under Sassu's management TVR 1 has managed to more than revert to the grandmom programming it used to dish out under Giurgiu's predecessor but dive even deeper into the inconsequential and badly produced. It has launched the mauve TVR3 which runs badly on most cable operators and is wedged on an invisible frequency somewhere between MiniMax and Euphoria only to broadcast unknown shows, B-rated movies and grow more and more unknown everyday from a lack of promotion (why launch something you have a hard time managing and advertising??).

I am the middle class and peak of life of the Romanian society and there is nothing on our PBS that is of interest to me (not even the belated running of Grey's Anatomy).

Now, I am a strong believer in the need for a strong PBS. I think that is shapes the way a nation sees things, it can open minds and lead ways (someone said, in a radio program, that TVR 1 is the only TV station which DID NOT run live coverage of the Obama inauguration and rightly asked "is that even NOT of public interest? or not public enough for us Romanians when it was for most of the world?"). And I am currently asking myself, is there anything we can do to make this better? Because while I am not sure we might get better with some decent programming hammered into our heads by the local PBS, I am convinced we can only get worse without it.