Notícies Dilluns 19.05.2014 17:23

Spanish State demands that Catalan Public TV shut off half its channels

Francesc Homs, spokesperson for the government, gave a press conference on the subject at noon

The Spanish Government wants the Generalitat de Catalunya to close half of the channels in the Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals (Catalan Corporation for AV Media), from eight down to four, according to government spokesperson Francesc Homs. Homs warned that the decision goes straight to the heart of the public television company and could mean giving up high definition broadcasting or "completely and definitively burying" any hopes of reciprocity with the Balearic Islands and Valencia. The Spanish government decision would be taken with all public channels, such that TV3 would no longer be able to seen in the Balearic Islands, where they are currently broadcast through IB3's second multiplexer.

The measure would mean closing one of the two multiplexers that Catalan public television currently has. Each one can carry the signal of between one and four conventional tv channels, or just two high definition channels, or one HD and two conventional. Currently managed through the Catalan Corporation for AV Media (CCMA), one of the multiplexers carries the channels for TV3, Esports 3, Super3 and 3/24. The other multiplexer currently carries the HD channel.

"Based on a matter that seems to be purely technical, that is, the distribution of the radio spectrum, they have communicated to us that we will have to free up half of the space that the CCMA currently occupies," said Homs. "We were assigned two multiplexers for broadcasting various channels, and now one of the two will not be able to be used." That would mean going from eight channels to four.

"This comes out of many months of talking back and forth and attempts at negotiation on our part, of letters that have not even been answered," said Homs, who referred to the closure as a unilateral action by Mariano Rajoy's executive. It is anticipated that the measure will be announced next Friday at the Spanish Council of Ministers meeting.

Homs warned that the decision that the Spanish Government is about to make "will affect almost exclusively channels that are used by TV3. Unfortunately, the Spanish Government is generally credible about closing channels. They are fully capable of it. They do it, and go on as if nothing had happened. And whatever bothers them about it tends to be silenced," said Homs, who insisted that the complaint made today by the Catalan Government was not a technical matter. "They want to restrict Catalan Television as much as they can."

More risk for the Catalan language

In this sense Francesc Homs recalled the minimal presence of Catalan on TV, a circumstance that was made even more evident with the appearance of more TDT TV channels. He commented that currently about 22-24% of the programming is offered in Catalan (in Catalonia proper) and that with the closure, that figure would fall lower still. For that reason, he addressed those who defend a bilingual Catalonia to "now also stand by the Catalan language". The councilor to the President pointed out the existing paradox between the limited presence of Catalan programming and the high audience levels that Catalan programming attracts.