🍿 2022-06-03 05:15:00 – Paris/France.
Victorio Pérez, presenter of 'One hour less' on Canarian television, explains in 2021 with augmented reality the eruption of the La Palma volcano.RTVC
The regional public broadcaster wants to continue playing an important role in the new and changing Spanish audiovisual scene, which is why it is immersed in a process of change towards innovation and digitization of its channels. This was explained by the president of the Federation of Autonomous Radio and Television Bodies or Entities (FORTA), Andoni Aldekoa, during a recent meeting with the press held in May.
The institution brings together 12 corporations and some of them, such as the Basque ETB and the Catalan TV3, are preparing to celebrate their 40th anniversary. "We started as radio and television stations, but now we are groups that include digital publications and on-demand television," recalls its manager.
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In the month of April 2022, the regionals reached a screen share of 8,3%, the same figure as La 1 de Televisión Española. Its objectives in the face of this new reality go through the veracity and quality of information in the era of fake news — that's why they are already working on the creation of an information verification tool — and the decentralization of information. Also for having reacted to the emergence of OTT platforms, such as Netflix and HBO Max, and "to a fragmentation of the media that has broken down the hegemonies of the past", explains Aldekoa. All of this will be faced with a focus on dealing with the controversial and complex General Audiovisual Law, which he says "it's good that it's updated and that it should generate certainty for the sector. ".
Aldekoa called on the media to defend the value provided by the regional ones, "which are a guarantee of access to information and proximity". The pandemic "has repositioned and strengthened" Forta and "has been a demonstration of what public and regional broadcasting can contribute" to state information by "having been that chain of transmission for more global information". Another example is last year's award-winning coverage of the Canarian Regional Network —National Television Award 2022— during the eruption of the La Palma volcano, which broadcast news for free to other national and international media. Or, as will happen soon, the ballot for the Andalusian elections on June 19, which will be prepared by Canal Sur to be shared with RTVE, assures the general secretary of La Forta, Enrique Laucirica.
Andoni Aldekoa, president of Forta.
To maintain this level of influence, Aldekoa is committed to investing a large part of its resources in innovation in order to adapt to the rapid transformation of digital environments. In the coming weeks, the institution will detail the plan it is developing for these 12 companies to transform “both technologically and content-wise”. Laucirica recalls that “metrics recorded by audiences are obsolete. All the audiovisual needs a renovation to value all these new uses of the spectator.
For Aldekoa, the role of these regional channels in the creation of an equally less centralized audiovisual industry is also very relevant. Alfonso Blanco, founder of the Galician production company Portocabo, highlighted a few days ago to this newspaper the importance of fiction series continuing to exist in regional, daily or weekly series, which welcome new talent and serve as a counterpoint to the proliferation of major audiovisual projects promoting the platforms of diffusion. The Autonomous Communities invest at least 6% of their annual income in film production, as provided for in the General Law of Audiovisual Communication (LGCA). Fiction in cinema and television, in the words of the president of La Forta, "is a great element to generate stories about territories, to convey who we are". The problem for Aldekoa is that the regional ones have a “relative” financial capacity at a time when fiction is sometimes beginning to have higher budgets than cinema.
An image from the second season of 'Auga seca' (Dry water), from Galician television, which can be seen worldwide via HBO Max.
The resources available to the Spanish public media are almost half of what they have in the rest of Europe. In the case of the Autonomous Communities, the difference is even greater compared to their equivalents in Belgium and Germany. As a study by the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) points out, funding for regional radio stations in Spain has fallen from 38 euros per inhabitant in 2011 to 27 euros per inhabitant in 2019 (latest data available), against 72 of its equivalent in Belgium and 84 of those in Germany.
Faced with the continuous criticism received by regional governments such as Telemadrid, due to the influence of successive regional governments of the People's Party in its management, Aldekoa explains that improving public governance is always a challenge, although he recalls the high levels of control and control that the public media have. However, he avoids assessing the position of Vox, contrary to the existence of regional networks, even though the far-right party is already part of a regional government thanks to its alliances with the PP.
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SOURCE: Reviews News
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