Balance of cultural television – LaTercera (Registration)

THE COUNCIL National Television (CNTV) has recently released the report with the evaluation of the first month under the new rules requiring public television to broadcast four hours of cultural programming a week, two of which must transmitted from Monday to Friday, in “prime”. The report corresponds to October last year -month which took effect such disposal-and just four months after it has been possible to obtain these early findings. The balance, as expected, is generally disappointing, both in the quality of content as in tune, reflecting the futility of imposing programs that do not respond to audience preferences.

If While the report is not reflected an assessment of CNTV, Tone own balance it appears generally positive perception of this first month of “cultural television.” According to the report, the channels reported 61 “cultural programs”, 51 of which were described as such; 14 of these “new programs” were considered. Four channels fully complied with the requirements, while the rest is flawed in some of the analyzed weeks. In total, were broadcast over 220 hours of “cultural content” -the 76% during October corresponded to national-embodiments where the channel TVN was presented greater volume of cultural programming.

It is noteworthy that third of the programs according to CNTV described as “cultural” correspond to the genre of “reports”. Surprisingly, also rated as “cultural” a series of talk shows and political debate; all while contributing to shape opinion on citizenship, could hardly be understood as cultural, which is another example of the capricious criteria that have been seen to evaluate programs. Another example of this are some programs “conversation” that, by the mere fact allocate a broadcast week to discuss some “cultural” theme, were also approved.

The channels have not seen major incentives to create new programming, and obviously are turning to existing ones to meet this requirement of the law formats. Certainly it would be valuable on broadcast television there a more intensive promotion of cultural content, but this should be a job that channels perform as part of their editorial freedom and in tune with their own audiences. If the State considers that such programs are essential, then you should consider some form of subsidy or special funds for that purpose, but not for such cost is transferred to channels.

The requirement to transmit obligatorily this content is embodied in the new law of Digital Television. It was predictable that a tax of this nature would have no significant effect on the audience, but instead sets a dangerous precedent, as it insists on defending the relevance of giving the state the power to interfere with the editorial line of the channel under the justification of a supposed public interest. Similar initiatives have already permeated the radial field, the project aimed to force transmitting Chilean music, or who seeks to regulate the mass recitals, which attempts to enshrine that in those international concerts the “openers” are Chileans.