Spanish public-service broadcaster’s TVE has had its production budget for the 2012 Olympic Games in London cut by 20-per-cent compared to that for the last summer Olympics, in Beijing in 2008, to €4 million ($5.4 million), the ADSLzone website reports.
TVE’s board of directors have approved the budget cut and also approved cuts in the number of personnel working on the event, with the production team set to be 25-per-cent smaller in London than it was in Beijing.
TVE, which acquired the rights for the 2010 and 2012 Olympics through a deal with the European Broadcasting Union, has tried and failed to agree sublicensing deals with commercial broadcasters for the London Games.
TVE is under pressure to cut its annual €1 billion budget by up to 20 per cent as the Spanish government attempts to stabilise the country’s economy. Unemployment in Spain has spiralled to 23 per cent.