For the media in Basque, this last year has been a long year, for different reasons. International trends are strengthening, consumption habits are changing and it is increasingly difficult to capture the attention of the recipients, it is increasingly difficult to connect with them and make community. The use of mobile phones is increasing and with it the predominance of social networks. To all this we must add the strengthening of Artificial Intelligence in recent years. the year 2023 was the year of presentation of the first general models of Artificial Intelligence and the next of practical applications of these Artificial Intelligences, so we can affirm that the year 2025 has been a year of intensification and deepening of all these processes. The incorporation of Artificial Intelligence in more and more areas and with greater efficiency has also made it essential to adapt to the media in Basque to take advantage of these new opportunities from our own needs and from our own perspective.
The world of communication is immersed in a deep and complex process of transformation and all the media, large and small, are looking for their own model to move forward. There is no model that works for everyone and everyone has to go their own way, diversifying their sources of income and deepening their knowledge of their recipients. Each media outlet must adapt its offer and supports to better connect with its community, trying to increase its social impact and/or impact. And all this must be done, of course, guaranteeing the survival of the projects, otherwise there is no progress. This path that each medium must follow is complex because it affects all the work activities of the projects and because, while they try to create and stabilize these new models, the world of communication itself is in motion, increasingly fast. The truth is that it is not a bad challenge.
In this general context, the association has made a special effort to offer direct information, a wide range of training and technological resources to its partners, but the main activity of the association during the past year has been the acquisition of more resources for the media in Basque. This work has been given the highest priority and, as will be explained below, this effort has, at least in some areas, borne fruit.
Different situations in the regular calls for grants
The media in Basque play an important social role. On the one hand, they make an essential contribution to the process of normalization of the Basque language, providing the Basque speaking community with a broad and important area to live in Basque and, on the other, they also fulfill the function of guaranteeing the right to information of citizens, freedom of the press or plurality of opinions, essential conditions for the development of democracy. To continue fulfilling this important social function, the media in Basque, like the rest of the media, need the impulse of public institutions and in recent years this impulse has been materialized through different calls for subsidies to the media in Basque.
The grant system launched in Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa in 2019 covered two three-year periods and for several months the media sector in Basque has been immersed in the process of agreeing on a new model to improve this system. The system that has been in force from 2019 to 2024 was valued as a step in the right direction at the time, but over time it has shown important shortcomings and it has been essential to adapt to the new times. The previous one has been a production-based model that has often complicated the media with new ways to adapt their projects to new consumption habits. In addition, as we have been able to know on several occasions, the increase in the price of certain essential elements for the media in recent years (paper, electricity, fuels...) has practically nullified the progress made in 2019, so it has not been possible to guarantee the improvement of the working conditions that this model should entail or the stabilization of the work teams.
Not only the sector but also the public institutions saw clearly that the system launched in 2019 gave the right thing to do, and the process of rethinking the grant model for subsequent years was launched at the Media Table. A subcommission was created to lead the process and the topics and timetable for the debate were agreed, which has been the most important activity of the media association in Basque in the last two years.
The new system establishes minimum requirements for participation in the call for proposals, including minimum production levels, but in general, the system has not been based on production as in the previous model. The new model of call for proposals aims to promote the development of media in Basque and, in this sense, as steps are taken to adapt the project to current needs (knowledge of audiences, innovation...), in addition to guaranteeing a minimum of support, the possibility of obtaining additional aid is opened. Likewise, in the new call for proposals, communication projects will be taken into account, without differentiating different blocks according to the different supports. The different products and/or supports produced by each communication project will be valued in a single project. Thus, at the time of submitting the call, each communication project must present its plan for the coming years, specifying what it is, what it does, what it intends to do and the equipment and resources it needs for it, and part of this budget will be subsidized. The higher the score obtained in the assessment of this planning, the greater the public coverage, since the actions that allow to obtain these additional points have an added expense behind them; the aim is to guarantee the impulse to develop them to those who want to do so.
The new system, as in previous years, was expected to last for three years, but in the end it will be for four years, that is, for the period 2025-2028. With regard to resources, it was clear that the four-year development of communicative projects would require a significantly greater effort on the part of public institutions than in previous years. Although there has been an increase in resources compared to previous years, it has not been sufficient to meet the real needs of the sector.
The change from three years to four years has been a decision of the Government, and although from the sector it was proposed to call three years after a certain trial period of one year, considering that the four-year period was too long, in the end the new system will be for four years. In view of this, both to ensure the development of the projects and to ensure that the increase in the cost of living does not affect the viability of the projects, the sector requested additional resources and although the institutions initially responded positively to the proposal, in the end these additional resources have been diverted to other objectives, which has greatly conditioned the effectiveness of the new system.
In fact, the public institutions themselves have acknowledged that the resources allocated to the four-year appeal have been insufficient and have therefore had to make adjustments to the limited resources available for the distribution of the amounts to be allocated to the media. The lack of sufficient resources has also led to the breakdown of the unity of criteria: The Government has begun to assess from a lower level the planning presented in order to prioritize the differences between the projects, while the Provincial Councils have begun to assess from a higher level, prioritizing the guarantee of the minimum coverage agreed with the sector. This disparity of criteria has also led to a significant imbalance in the sector, with the coverages guaranteed by the Government far from those guaranteed by the Provincial Councils.
The fact that the three-year period has been extended to four years has meant that the processing process has been further extended and that the change in political and technical decision-makers in the field of Language Policy after the elections has further delayed everything. Well, this delay has caused serious problems for several media outlets. The calls for proposals have been published since the second half of the year and the resolutions have not been notified until December, with all that this means: this delay has caused liquidity problems for many media outlets, which have had to make their expenses for the year 2025 without knowing the public subsidy they would receive. The media have had a period of one month to present their planning for four years, which has meant a significant workload, especially for projects with few collaborators, since they have had to present different plans and thematic documents. The work carried out by the partners of the initiative has been important and the planning presented has been, in general, very good, but, as I say, the result, in many cases, has not been the expected one. Worse still, there have been cases in which the grant awarded has been lower or similar to that of the previous period, which has led to doubts about the viability of these projects.
In short, the new system of subsidies aimed at guaranteeing the stability and development of the media in Álava, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa represents a new step forward, but in general it has not achieved the expected impulse and, in some cases, it has not managed to guarantee the viability of the media itself. We will do everything possible to ensure the viability of these media that have been the worst in the sector, to guarantee the minimum coverage agreed and to provide additional resources to allow the evolution of the projects, and we hope that the public institutions will seek solutions in these three areas so that the work done and the progress made are satisfactory for all.
In Navarre, on the other hand, there have been no significant changes in the system of subsidies to the media in Basque. There has been some increase in the amount allocated and some small changes have been introduced in the call for proposals, but no process has been initiated to agree on a new system and there has been no significant increase in resources that this new system would require, although the main conclusions of the reflection on the media in Basque carried out in the subcommission launched in 2024 within the Navarre Council of the Basque Country have outlined this path.
A subcommittee of the Navarro Council of the Basque Country prepared a report that highlighted the needs of the sector and, after its presentation in plenary, the Council gave its approval. But at least in the first year after, no new systems have been developed and the amounts allocated have not increased significantly. The report made it clear that in Navarre the work of the media in Basque is also essential and that the current support of public institutions is insufficient, but, as I say, at least in the last call for proposals there have been no significant changes. We are aware that Euskarabidea has begun to work on the elaboration of a new call model and that the sector has been asked for its opinion on a timely basis, but for the moment it has not launched, as in Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, commissions or forums for the construction of this new call model together with the sector. There is a demand from the sector for the launch of this forum and also from the Basque Country, which, as I say, has not been launched at the moment.
Although the budget allocated by the Government of Navarre to support the media in Basque has been increasing in recent years and some changes have been introduced in the call for proposals in order to adapt it to the current reality of the media, the number is still far from the needs of the media in Basque in Navarre and the current model of call has notable deficiencies in promoting the development and/or modernization of the media. In addition, television stations do not yet have the possibility to present themselves to this call and the little support they obtain depends on the television programs they present, which changes every year and prevents the stabilization of the work teams. We also believe that this is a matter that must be resolved as a matter of priority. In other words, in Navarre it is also essential to adapt the model of call for grants to the new reality of the media in Basque and increase the resources to the extent that this new model requires, which will be the most important challenge that the sector will face in Navarre in the coming months.
In Iparralde, unfortunately, the change has been even smaller. The aid continues to be maintained and this is a setback in a context of enormous increases in paper, electricity, transport and other services. Public subsidies for the media in Basque are mainly distributed by the Basque Public Entity, and in recent years the figure has been frozen after suffering a 1.5% reduction in 2022. The amount allocated to support the media in Basque amounted to 537,500 euros in 2021, but instead of increasing it in the following four years it has decreased, standing around 530,000 euros. In a context in which the media are immersed in a profound process of transformation, instead of increasing aid, they are kept frozen, with all that this entails.
On the other hand, and as in the previous year, the subsidy received by radio stations in Basque from the fund that the French State allocates to local radio stations in its budget has also been questioned in 2025. Because, as we have said before, EEP is the main public financier of the media in Basque, but not the only one. The French State also supports the media in Basque through other calls, including radio stations in Basque, allocating around 400,000 euros from the FSER fund to radio stations in Basque. And in addition, from the same fund, every five years, an additional aid is also allocated for the renewal of the tooling. in the 2025 budget debate, they proposed a 35% reduction in this fund, which could force the reduction of five jobs, so the agents of the Basque Country in the Northern Basque Country launched an advocacy work and finally the proposal did not prosper, but it seems that the proposal is again on the table for the budgets of the year 2026. We will have to be on the subject and do everything possible, as last year, so that this proposal does not move forward.
Steps backwards in the extraordinary aid of Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa
As in the previous year, in 2025, an extraordinary call for grants related to the effects of generative artificial intelligence was published in Álava, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, and the resolution came in August. The call, as in the previous edition, was published as a “Grant to minimize the negative impact of generative artificial intelligence on the creation, elaboration and publication of content by professional media that provide daily information” and, in general, has been in line with that of the previous year, although some modifications have also been introduced, mainly aimed at preventing the largest media from carrying most of the corresponding stock market and/or modifying the criteria to decide the location of the media in one or another group.
In the first two years, 2021 and 2022, this extraordinary grant had other objectives or denominations, the first year (directly, without convocation) was aimed at mitigating the damage caused to the media by the pandemic and the second (by convocation) was aimed at guaranteeing the right to information and diversity of opinions. Well, in 2023 there was no such thing, and it was not good news for the media in Basque. In fact, although in the two years mentioned more than 9 out of 10 euros were allocated to media outlets published in Spanish, this extraordinary aid was important for the media in Basque.
in 2021, the Government distributed 5 million euros and, as I say, only 2 media in Basque were taken into account. We contacted the heads of the different departments and in 2022 they put 1 million more, increasing the stock market by 20%, and they took into account 9 media outlets in Basque, but again the number received by the media in Basque was very low (it did not reach 8%). As I said, the absence of this extraordinary subsidy in 2023 added a point of difficulty to the nine media outlets in Basque that had received this aid the previous year and, of course, to those that had not received anything until then.
the 2024 call for proposals was published at the end of July by the Basque Government, apparently with all the guarantees of the European Union, and the stock exchange provided for one million more, seven million euros in total, six million for the general and one million for the local media, and in this last line two sublines were foreseen according to the audience. In addition, the call for proposals included some interesting measures to prevent a single media outlet from absorbing a significant part of the stock market and to make the aid more distributed, but other requests from the sector were not taken into account: on the one hand, the estimates of the audience were general, not dependent on the potential audiences of each one, and on the other, as in previous occasions, the thematic media were excluded from the call.
In the year 2025, the same or very similar photography has been repeated. In relation to this special call, the two main requests made from the beginning by the media sector in Basque (that the aid is aimed at all media in Basque and that in the case of those in Basque the points are awarded according to their potential audience) have not been taken into account. It is true that every year there are more media in Basque that have been supported through this call (in the first year only two were supported and in the last one 23 have been supported), but in none of the four calls made have thematic or specialized media been subsidized because they are not daily newspapers. In addition, although we have asked that the media in Basque be measured at all times according to their potential audience, there has also been no progress in this area in the four calls, and in the latter case the media in Basque have also been valued according to the audiences of the media in Spanish.
If we analyze the amounts allocated, on the other hand, we can see that the media in Basque, in general, have received 8% less, almost 108,000 euros less than the previous year, mainly because, after the group change, they have allocated 61% less to Argia and also in the local area, in some cases they have been allocated significantly less than the previous year (in some cases 60% or 70% less). As I say, it is true that in this call for proposals more media have been subsidized in Basque than in the previous call, but in general the amount allocated to those in Basque has decreased. And, in addition, one more year, the thematic ones have been left out of the call. Once again, when assessing the audiences, those in Basque have been assessed according to the audiences of the media in Spanish, that is, foreseeing that people who do not know Basque can be audiences of the media in Basque. As is known, due to the deep process of decimation of decades, the potential audience of the media in Basque is significantly lower than that of the media in Spanish, but when calculating the percentages of this audience they also measure those in Basque according to the potential audience of the media in Spanish. If the media in Basque were measured according to their potential audience, the percentages would increase significantly and the subsidy that would correspond to them would also increase proportionally, but, as I say, another year they have been measured using the figures of the media in Spanish, which, again, has meant that the amount of aid to be received is lower than it would correspond to them.
Moreover, the Vocento group has been awarded 20% more than the previous year, but without reaching the impressive amounts allocated in the first two years, and the Noticias group in general about 20% more, with the growth of Noticias de Gipuzkoa standing at around 14%. In any case, the Noticias group has received significantly more in the last two years than in the first two; while in the first two years it did not exceed the million, in 2024 it was allocated 1.49 million euros and in 2025 1.76 million euros.
As in the previous one, although there have been improvements in the call for applications in 2025, once again several media in Basque have been excluded from the call; all thematic media and others have also been excluded, and once again the same notable gap has been repeated: the audience so important for the calculation of the amount of aid has been measured by the general audience, not by the potential audience itself and, of course, this causes the media in Basque to receive less aid.
The Association should continue to influence this line. On the one hand, so that all the media in Basque have the right to participate, and on the other hand so that the calculations are made according to the potential audiences, but also so that this extraordinary call for subsidies, so important for the development of the media, becomes habitual.
Context of the media in Basque
The events mentioned above have been the most important in the field of media, but of course, that is not all that the year has spent in the field of media in Basque. There are many and varied steps taken by the Basque media to adapt their actions to the new reality and it is impossible to mention them all in this section, so we will only cite some examples of this general process, even if it is only to show that the media in Basque continue to make their way.
In the introduction we have anticipated that the year 2025 has been a year of generalization and deepening of Artificial Intelligence, and in this field the steps taken by various media in Basque are noteworthy. The news, for example, has regulated the use of Artificial Intelligence in its style book and has organized conferences to reflect on the impact that Artificial Intelligence is having in journalism. The light, on the other hand, has digitized its historical archive and its collection of photographs, allowing a semantic search that uses artificial intelligence for searches. Jakin has also digitized the works of Basque thinkers in recent years and has placed them in the Basque Thought - All Works section of its portal, allowing, among other things, advanced searches based on concepts. The magazine Elhuyar, in collaboration with Orai, has also incorporated into its digital version automatic summaries of texts and audio versions (text-to-speech), adapting scientific dissemination to new formats. NAIZ Irratia has also taken new steps to automatically transcribe its radio programs, indexing the contents better in search engines and thus significantly improving the accessibility of these contents. Tokikom, for its part, has developed tools to manage a large amount of local information, to organize local news in a more automated way and has also reinforced its commitment to its integrated digital platforms, so that the media of small towns have intelligent search engines and/or recommendation systems.
On the other hand, from the association itself we have launched the LAAguntzatzailea platform, which brings together the different tools that use Artificial Intelligence in a single platform and makes them available to the partners. The ultimate goal of these tools is to facilitate repetitive and lengthy work for journalists, so that they have more time for their real work as journalists. In the same way, and unlike general international models, special emphasis has been placed on the fact that the origin of the information used by these tools is controlled and, of course, that our language and our culture are sufficiently elaborated on the basis of these tools.
As for the podcast, we can say that the year 2025 has been, in a certain way, the year of maturity. We can already talk not only about the emergence of podcasts, but also about the structuring of the sector in this field and the consolidation of its own platforms. In media such as Argia or Berria, podcasts are no longer isolated pieces, but are part of larger transmedia projects. In the news, for example, they have reaffirmed their commitment to make podcasts audiovisual and reinforce their strategy of disseminating the most significant parts of these contents on social networks (TikTok, Instagram). In Argia, on the other hand, a humorous podcast like Too Late has rounded off Season 6, using audio as the backbone of the subscription model and connection with the community. In the case of the locals, there are many examples worth mentioning, but to mention one, it is worth mentioning the work of Antxeta Irratia on the neighborhood patrols of Irun, for having made a research journalism so scarce in our country and for having recently won the award for the best audiovisual work in the Argia awards. It is also worth mentioning the effort that Naiz Irratia is making in this area, with podcasts related to historical memory, as well as with those of Adi and Ari, where short audio pills (with transcriptions supported by AA) are offered to work on the linguistic standard or the dialects, for those who want to learn or improve the Basque language. All of them Podcast.eus can also be found in the Basque podcast aggregator, which in part acts as a showcase for a more complete panorama. Some people have understood that in front of the large platforms, they also need their own spaces to protect content in Basque, where you can find, among others, podcasts of media in Basque such as Argia, Berria, Elhuyar, Hamaika, Naiz irratia or Zuzeu.
Finally, I would like to bring back to these lines a theme that I mentioned in the introduction: the use of social networks in the hands of international giant companies that use this data to acquire data and do business. As is known, some media in Basque have renounced the use of certain social networks and others continue to use them because they do not want to lose the relationship and visibility they have achieved with a certain profile of recipients as a result of years of work. The issue is not new and has no easy solution, because, as I say, the work done for years can often be lost and the media in Basque must take advantage of all the possibilities to increase their accessibility and/or visibility, but on the other hand the decision of those who have refused to use these channels is absolutely respectable. The same is true of the decision taken by several Basque groups not to place their songs on the platform Spotify, which has Israeli capital to denounce the genocide in Gaza, where decisions are made that are perfectly understandable and plausible in accordance with their own principles, but which inevitably also means further limiting the dissemination of the works of creators in Basque, already very limited. Even among the experts that we have brought to the different training sessions that we have offered to the partners in recent years, the subject is not clear at all. Some recommend being present on as many platforms and channels as possible to increase their visibility and dissemination or reach, but others bet on extracting their own content from all social networks and offering it on their own site, on the platform under their control, beyond the reasons related to the principles, so that it is clear that these contents are their own, to build and strengthen the brand, to build a more direct relationship with the recipients and, ultimately, to build and strengthen the community. As I say, this debate has no easy solution, and we are no one to say what the media in Basque should do, but this debate is still open in 2025, and that is why we wanted to bring it here, to show that the media in Basque continue to try to reach their audiences with maximum efficiency and quality above these debates or contradictions.
In fact, the media sector in Basque continues to advance and in what way. Speaking of the media in Basque, as a friend said, supposedly mistakenly formulating an old saying, the media in Basque continues to advance under all kinds of weeds and above all fog, that is, trying to make their offer effective. Well, that’s the summary, the media in Basque continue to work under all the brushes and above all the fog to make an offer as neat as possible to their recipients and to extend it as much as possible to a greater number of recipients. Let’s see if the Basque public institutions are also aware of this and, without leaving anyone behind, guarantee all the media in Basque stability and a sufficient impulse to be able to adapt to the new realities. To this end, the Hekimena association will continue to work, without leaving anyone behind, collaborating to guarantee minimum and dignified conditions to all media in Basque.