The second CONTD sessions have finished with the accomplishment and reinforcement of the expectations that had arisen from previous editions. The meeting, that was celebrated the past 1st and 2nd of June, brought together various experts, professionals and academics from all parts of the country, and they analyzed the transformation process that the television is going through. The Master’s Degree in Audiovisual Contents and Formats from the University of Valencia, put together a forum that managed to create an intense and representative assistance of different Spanish audiovisual areas and it has successfully surpassed all the predictions of the organizers. During the hard working days, different ideas regarding the new television model have been considered: The new Audiovisual Law, the new business patterns, the part the users and the contents have in all of this, etc. This allowed us to build a useful and necessary reflection, in a moment previous to following the rules, where the dialogue between the Management, the audiovisual industry and the social agents has very likely been insufficiently fluid.
Management facing a nes scenario.
The Government thinks of the future television system as an essential key to our democracy. This is the message that was given to the assistants by Ricardo Perralta, the Government Representative of the Valencian Community, who opened the sessions on behalf of the First Vice-President of the Spanish Government, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, who excused her attendance. Both he and Francisco Ros, the State Secretary of Telecommunications and Society of Information, defended the efforts that the Government is making to achieve the digital transformation of the television broadcastings. To this end they claimed that we found ourselves among the leading countries regarding the process of going towards the DTTV. As proof, the following 30th of June will be the end of the 1st faze, which will reach its climax in April of 2010. Till that time, more than 500 Spanish municipalities will have only digital television. Among them, there were seven municipalities of the Valencian regions of Utiel-Requena and Los Serranos. However, other communities like Galicia or Castilla y Le&oaoacute;n, haven’t done the required things so as to guarantee the coverage among their citizens and consequently they will not be made part of this first making of the contract with the DTTV, as previously planned.
Peralta and Ros, from Management, insisted on the advantages that the DTTV would bring, because they said it’s the only technology capable of offering all the citizens new contents through new multimedia formats, creating the way towards a multichannel offer that could bring new opportunities to both the audience and the producers and distributors. So, the DTTV is viewed by the Government itself as a window that offers everyone an universal access to the Society of Information and Knowledge. That is why the man in charge assigned by the Executive, preferred the expression “digital ignition” to “digital television transition”. Facing the possible doubts that the transition process could generate and finding itself in the middle of a debate with the field agents about the future Audiovisual Law, the Government wanted to make clear the fact that the normative foundation that was being prepared assured an efficient and dynamic transition towards digitalization and appropriate conditions for the whole audiovisual field that can allow the chance to overcome this critical moment. Towards this end the two representatives of the Government tried to send a message with the purpose of calming down all the involved agents, but even so, they couldn’t avoid the doubts and distrust towards the recent approval of the reform law of the audiovisual market by the Cabinet, a law that involves eliminating publicity on public television during September and establishes an additional contribution system on the part of the private channels and the telecommunication firms.
Public and commercial television: Two conflicting patterns?
This idea was the theme of the session, the main stars of which were Jesús M. Santos, Manager of RTVE Presidential Matters, and Mauricio Carlotti, Vice President of the Antena 3 Group. The doubts began to show themselves since the presentation made by Eladio Gutiérrez, President of Impulsa TDT, in which he stated that the public and commercial televisions are public services and that their rightful owner is the State. While UTECA, the association of private televisions, claims that this type of televisions are not part of the public service. These diverging positions could be seen in the dialogue between Santos and Carlotti. For the manager of Antena 3 the public and private bodies are very different. But that doesn’t mean that the commercial televisions are not allowed to broadcast general interest contents, like football.
On his part, Santos defended the validity of a strong and high quality public television pattern, which is capable of entertaining and becoming the mirror of social diversity and reality. From his point of view, these audiovisual aids have to be made by the citizens and for the citizens, with the compulsory request of offering not only emotional answers but also rational ones. Santos considers that RTVE has to generate cohesion elements that not only stimulate knowledge and participation, but also civic values based on a critical attitude towards society.
The general feeling was that both public and private television claimed their position on the market, despite the confusing and unstable moment in which we found ourselves. Jordi Hidalgo, head of the Fiction department on TVV, said almost the same thing when arguing that television has a good general state. Apart from the general belief that television loses part of its audience to the new formats of communication, Hidalgo thinks that the number of rating hours has actually increased in the last few years, a situation that is expected to continue improving in the future. However, despite the fact that television is a big part of the citizens’ spare time, things are not as they used to be. According to the facts presented by Luis de Zubiaurre, Assistant Manager of GECA, our intuitions are confirmed: a major fragmentation and a gradual abandoning of general televisions are occurring. The thematic channels and the DTTV are the ones improving their ratings, meanwhile a drop of the ratings of the analogical television is noticed, comparable to the aging of its audience. Things have changed to the point that, nowadays, a channel can be considered a rating leader with a 15% share, something that not so long ago was unthinkable. What seems undeniable is that the resulting new audiovisual pattern will bring new business options in the cultural television industry. In these conditions the public and private televisions will have to redefine their strategic position regarding its public and also concerning its contents and distribution formats. It’s rather significant that the rate of failures seen as a new thing should have reached 75% during the last television season, as the representative of GECA claimed. On the same subject, he expressed his regret on the fact that a lot of firms have no consideration for the public and the channel they address themselves to, so he decided to value the information and investigation more than before, when working in this industry.
It seems that the technologic convergence will permit the television to look for new broadcasting formats, and so, part of the contents of the traditional channels will move on towards other visualization forms. The former manager of the Media Europe Institute, Joan Majó, showed himself to be very efficient concerning this. In his speech he mentioned that television cannot be consider television anymore because of the technologic changes, the way of programming and producing, and also because of the consumption habits that revolutionized the television world. Majó got to claim in a certain provocative tone that the television channels, at least the general ones, will stop existing. They will be replaced by contents and their capacity to reach the public through different distribution ways, a fact that will define the market.
The contents, always.
Touching the subject of contents, Pedro Pérez, manager of FAPAE, was one of the several people to categorically express his opinion. He said that we find ourselves in moments of profound changes for the audiovisual scene. Regarding production, the work routines will change and concepts like those of multicast, multichannel, web flows or coproduction will find themselves having additional value. That is why he demanded better sector management, which was clearly chosen in favor of the operators. Pérez said that there has to be a balance in the future making of the rules and that opportunities have to be offered to the ones who have talent.
His demand for talent was one of the most appreciated requests of the sessions. He assured people of the fact that talent and economic resources cannot be found in televisions, and that the place to find them is on the street, obviously criticizing the channels’ lack of interest in taking some risks. There will be several operators that, judging by their criterion, will find themselves favored, due to the transfer of the income originated from public television advertising. As a piece of advice for the new producers, he stated that not all televisions compete for the same thing, so they have to try and find out the necessities of each one analyzing their starting point.
In conclusion, as a result to what has been said these days, the contents will always represent the most important thing in trying to understand the television phenomenon. The finding of talent must be a fundamental task and it has to be performed in the most different places. And talent can also be found at education centers and at the universities, as it was proved after the pitching session performed by the students of the Official Audiovisual Contents and Formats Master’s Degree, who, as their dissertation, presented and defended their projects in front of a group of the most important producers and representatives of television channels. The most important assistants in the group were Jordi Serra, chief of Programming on TV3; Pere Roca, Manager of the Cultural Channel on RTVE; Francesc Picó, Chief of the Fiction Department on TVV; Kiko Martínez, Manager of the Valencian Audiovisual Group; and Antonio Mansilla, Manager of the Indepenent Producers Association (AVAPI).
The selected projects were: Empléate, a documentary - show where the contestants choose to find a real job, having to confront a selection process done by experts; Sense grades, a series of items that show the personal stories of the football fields of the most humble and unknown leagues; Raymundo en su mundo, a travel show based on the finding and booking of travels on the Internet; Urbano, a documentary series about different artistic manifestations performed on the stage of the big city streets; Ligero de equipaje, a contest that originates from a social travelling webpage, and which is about two contestants that will end up exchanging homes; and last but not least the fiction series 4o B which tells the story of the day to day life of several students who share a flat, using a traditional alternation of webcams, as a main method. Some of the presented projects had a very positive feedback from the professionals that were present in the room at that time, which comes to show the high level reached by the students in this specific Master’s Degree year.
The voice of the citizens.
We’ve seen that the new television pattern is generating new business opportunities, but we also have to keep in mind that this process will offer the citizens new rights and possibilities. Andrés Armas, Secretary General of Impulsa TDT, claimed that the transition process towards digital television is still leaving some signs, although we are now facing the final stage. The unresolved assignment of several frequencies, the high definition channels and the giving a green light to payment services, are some of the things that have to be dealt with as soon as possible so as to guarantee a complete and general access to those services and contents. The digital gap has to be avoided by all means.
From a more social point of view, José María Bernardo, an Audiovisual Communication professor at the University of Valencia, focused his speech on the responsibility that the media has towards the citizens. Following this idea, he demanded a much more active role on the part of the public, within the communicative processes, which have lately been involved in very important cultural changes like the globalization and extension of the social webs. For Bernardo, the TIC represents crucial elements for the configuration of culture, politics and social action. But as he sees it, communication asks for independence and, of course, for interactivity with the rest of sub - systems that build the society. So as to be organized and regular, this relationship needs the guarantee of tools for the involvement of the citizens, but it also has to allow the possibility for the public power to apply penalties.
The same things were said by Alejandro Perales, from the Communication User’s Association, who claimed that the user is the weakest link of the chain because he is the most disorganized and his capacity to influence is less smaller. He said that despite the statements made by various persons, to this moment there are no clear ideas about towards where we are headed with the terrestrial digital television. According to the AUC representative, the radio-electrical space wastes itself if there is an excessive offer of channels, the interactive services won’t be so developed and the possible fusions among operators may involve the creating of oligopolies, and that would endanger the variety of contents.
So, Perales considered that the new method of financing the public television can be the start of its downfall. He was very critical regarding the already known parts of the plan, for various reasons: because it will cause a price raise for the payment services, contracting advertising spaces will be very expensive, and last but not least, private televisions will contribute to the budget of the public television.
From another point of view, Ricard Martínez, from the Data Protection Center, appreciated the change of prototype as a driving force of the citizens’ right to control the information that goes through the new communication channels. The so called web 2.0, generates a new audiovisual prospect in which the main character is the user. For the expert, a new social universe is born, where he can find the communication tools that are practically public property. In this context, the blogosphere generates a new setting that allows the citizens to be producers and spread information but without having a specific legal framework at their disposal.
As a last idea, Ángel García Castillejo, Adviser to the Telecommunications Market Committee, assured that the variety of information is fundamental when it comes to respecting the citizens’ right of receiving truthful information, like the one contained by the Constitution. From his point of view, it has been making itself known with the passing of time, until today when the citizens’ freedom to choose whatever option suits them best, is a reality.
For Castillejo, variety is the option that allows the access to different points of view about the same thing. And that has to be guaranteed with the help of private televisions, but also with the help of powerful and quality public televisions. In fact, he claimed that with the pattern that is being proposed, the public television risks becoming a channel with fantastic but very boring contents that nobody watches. That is why, according to the technical expert, a new global pattern for the whole Spanish television system has to be generated. Castillejo also referred to the European board of directors about the audiovisual contents named “Sin fronteras 2007”, guaranteeing the variety of contents. It is precisely the 1/2009 Real Decree that will raise the matter of the DTTV and new services access, and also the possibility to start concentration and channel fusion processes, as long as the 27% rating is not exceeded. Despite all these developments, there are still limits regarding access, and if not eliminated they can affect variety.
A law to regulare the sector.
The understanding between the different agents of the audiovisual sector and Management is now, definitely, more necessary than ever due to the delicate social and economic moments that we are going through and also due to the transcendence that brings the definition of a new television pattern. The new law that requires the functioning of the television industry, and The Audiovisual Council, are necessary because they have the purpose of drawing together dispersed regulatory measures and of offering transparency to its functioning. The expert communication jurists, who took part in one of the sessions’ passionate debates, agreed that the making of a completely independent Council was a fundamental element, due to the fact that Spain is one of the few European countries that lack it, with the exception of several autonomous communities like Cataluña, Andalucía and Navarra. On this subject, the regulation or self-regulation starting from a successive set of accompaniment measures leaded us nowhere. Elisenda Malaret, the Administrative Law professor from the University of Barcelona and member of the Catalonian Council of the Audiovisual, Lluís de Carreras, the Information Law professor from UOC, and Enrique Linde, the Administrative Law professor from the UNED, showed the rules and regulations chaos in the matter, until now partially improvised, which represents a legal universe riddled with gaps and contradictions, that could be fixed with the help of a global regulation entailed by coherence. Therefore, it is necessary to build a strong and well-prepared model, always open to the changes that the Information and Knowledge Society demands from us. A pattern that, without any doubt, surpasses the advertising of public ownership media.
Since the organization of the 2nd CONTD Sessions, we can be very pleased with the work we’ve done these days. Now, we only need to continue and start working on the subjects of the next sessions, in which we will take into discussion, among other things, the quality contents in the new digital space and the possibilities of high definition on the television market.
