RTP Board Grilled Over €70M Digital Reset and Newsroom Shake-Up

Even by Portuguese standards—where political drama and media intrigue often share the same stage—the past two weeks at RTP have unfolded at a dizzying pace. The state-owned broadcaster has changed its top newsroom leadership, unveiled a sweeping corporate shake-up and been hauled before parliament, all while insisting that the moves are essential to a long-delayed digital overhaul. For foreigners who rely on RTP Internacional to keep a linguistic foothold in Portugal—or who simply binge RTP Play to practice their Portuguese—these behind-the-scenes tremors matter more than they might first appear.

A public broadcaster under scrutiny

RTP’s board, headed by veteran editor-turned-executive Nicolau Santos, spent nearly three hours before lawmakers on 22 July explaining why it sacked news chief António José Teixeira and why it wants to trim the company’s management layers from 39 to 28. Santos told MPs the plan is “absolutely necessary” if RTP is to stop bleeding viewers to global streamers and regain credibility on younger screens. He also stressed—repeatedly—that there was “no political interference” in the decision, a statement greeted with lifted eyebrows across the aisle.

A swift changing of the newsroom guard

Teixeira had only been in the job since 2022, but the board argued the newsroom needed “renewal.” Within twenty-four hours of the dismissal, media regulator ERC cleared the appointment of veteran anchor Vítor Gonçalves as the new information director. Critics counter that the board failed to consult RTP’s own Conselho de Redação, a step required by the Television Law. That procedural shortcut has become Exhibit A for opposition MPs who accuse the management of sidestepping safeguards meant to protect newsroom independence.

Inside the €70 M restructuring blueprint

Beyond personnel drama, the board’s PowerPoint impressed even sceptics with its ambition. Over the next four years RTP plans to pour about €70 M into studios, cloud-based editing suites and an AI-assisted archive. The company will consolidate into four broad business units—corporate, operations, thematic content and general programming—while cutting the cadre of directors from 30 to 23. Ninety-seven employees have already accepted voluntary exit packages; up to 250 departures are budgeted if additional state funds arrive later this year. A newly minted Comité Editorial de Informação will attempt to move journalists toward a “story-first, platform-agnostic” mindset—no small task in a newsroom long structured around separate TV and radio silos.

Political crossfire and newsroom push-back

Opposition lawmakers, led by the Socialist Party (PS), say the timing feels too convenient: a new parliament, a newly sworn-in government and suddenly a refreshed editorial hierarchy. Unions argue that job cuts risk hollowing out local reporting just as regional elections loom. For its part, the board insists the changes will protect—not imperil—pluralism by freeing resources for investigative work and faster online turnarounds. Still, the rhetorical knives are out: one PS deputy accused RTP management of offering a “corporate facelift that forgets the face of democracy.”

Show me the money: funding the public mission

All of this happens against a stark balance-sheet backdrop. RTP forecasts a €18.2 M loss this year, its first red ink since 2009, as advertising revenue stagnates and production costs rise. The government has signalled it wants RTP1 to wean itself off commercials “in the medium term,” but has not nailed down how the hole will be plugged. Management quietly lobbies for a tweak to the Contribuição para o Audiovisual (CAV)—the licence-fee-style levy tacked onto electricity bills—while unions demand any shortfall be covered by the state budget. Until a formula is agreed, every burst of spending on tech or exits will draw scrutiny.

Déjà vu at Rádio e Televisão de Portugal

Veteran observers note that RTP shake-ups follow a familiar script. In 2012 an entire board resigned after the Passos Coelho government floated privatising RTP1; in 2016 another high-profile exit raised conflict-of-interest alarms over executives who owned production companies. Each episode revived the perennial debate over how to safeguard a public broadcaster in a small market where politics and press often mix. The current saga, analysts say, merely adds a digital urgency to old questions of funding and independence.

What expats should watch for

For international residents—and for the diaspora who stream Portuguese news from Boston to Berlin—the stakes are practical. A leaner, more tech-savvy RTP could expand RTP Play’s geo-blocked catalogue, roll out bilingual subtitles faster and push Portuguese content onto smart-TV hubs where Netflix now reigns. Conversely, prolonged political wrangling could delay those upgrades or even erode trust in the impartiality of RTP Internacional, the channel many newcomers use to track Portuguese politics. One way or another, the coming months will clarify whether this latest re-engineering is a turning point or just another spin of the carousel at Portugal’s most watched—and most debated—media institution.