A proposal submitted by the Minister of Health and Mass Media to maintain the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) and the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC) as separate state enterprises with distinct identities while enhancing operational efficiency and revenue generation through a structured strategic business plan has been approved by the Cabinet.
This decision is based on the recognition that the expected outcomes of merging these two institutions may not be achievable due to several factors. These include the use of different technologies by SLBC and SLRC, the greater space requirements of SLRC’s recording studios compared to those of SLBC, and the geographical dispersion of their respective transmission towers, which makes integration challenging.
However, it should be noted that policy approval for the merger of SLBC and SLRC to form a single state-owned enterprise had already been granted at the Cabinet meeting held on 2023-11-27. Accordingly, the then-existing State-Owned Enterprise Restructuring Unit had submitted recommendations on how to establish a new state-owned company under the Companies Act by merging SLBC and SLRC.
Nevertheless, no further steps have been taken in this regard up to now.
This new Cabinet decision has effectively nullified the earlier decision to merge the two institutions.
