Bells: Money for Fiction, Censorship Case in ‘The Child’ and Radio Arvyla’s Return to Third Spot

So much upheaval at the start of this season hasn’t been seen in years within the Greek TV landscape, with channel executives on edge. The last similar disruption occurred during the financial crisis and bailout years, when tight budgets led to endless reruns and low-cost programming. Now, especially in fiction, thanks to funding from the Hellenic Film Centre, Audiovisual Media and Creation, ‘money is available’—even for some productions that, frankly, are not entirely deserving, though thankfully such cases are few. Let’s leave that discussion aside for now. Even public television, which until recently distanced itself provocatively from fiction, has significantly invested in recent years, producing series genuinely worth watching. Recently, Alexandra Boussiou, an experienced professional in film, TV, and international co-productions, was appointed Head of Fiction and Entertainment at ERT. Staying on fiction and public broadcasting, I learned that the popular series ‘Electra’ will soon return to its previous time slot at 19:45, after a drop in viewership when moved to 20:30. This shows ERT does care about audience numbers—a reasonable and necessary approach, even if ratings shouldn’t be the only rule. Everyone, after all, is entitled to mistakes. A third questionable decision—or let’s call it censorship—has emerged at ERT. Following previous incidents, including one where a scene featuring two gay men was cut from a trailer, I’ve learned from reliable sources that in this season’s acclaimed series ‘The Child’, a scene with a kiss between two women was never filmed and effectively censored. While some strive to move forward, others insist on looking backward. To those who believe such scenes should be removed, I suggest watching the next episode of the outstanding series ‘Serres’ on ANT1, Tuesday, October 14, at 22:30.