Enrique Bustamante Ramirez
Professor of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising at the Complutense University of Madrid, former member of the council for the reform of state-owned media, 2004-2005
THE AUDIOVISUAL RECORD OF THE GOVERNMENTS OF RODRIGUEZ ZAPATERO (2004-2011)
FROM PLURALISM TO THE REDUCTION OF THE PUBLIC SPACE
The increase in television pluralism was the motto of the advent of President Rodríguez Zapatero as the head of the Spanish Government and it has remained as a great slogan of the public policies during the course of his two terms of office. With regard to the public service, this goal was embodied in the creation of the Independent Council for Reform and the profound legal and democratic revision of RTVE (the state-owned Spanish radio and television corporation) in 2006. As regards the private model, there was the creation of new commercial analogue broadcasting operators ( Cuatro and La Sexta ), at the cost of a bitter confrontation with the large private multimedia groups, and a digital transition to DTTV was planned, with unencrypted broadcasts and the distribution of a large number of national digital programmes (20 before the switch to analogue in April 2010, 32 at the present day, as well as 8 in each autonomous region).
Nevertheless, the second term of the Socialist Party in power entailed a radical shift in the regulation and structure of the whole audiovisual system, with a clear regression in terms of the strength of the public service and a profound deregulation of commercial television, which is leading to a serious reduction of pluralism in television. Not surprisingly, several authors have spoken of a genuine Counter-Reformation in the audiovisual sector. ?On the one hand, without taking account of what has happened in the economy before making plans for the future, a new financial model for the public service of RTVE has been launched, based on the French model of Sarkozy, and focused on the application of fees for private television and telecommunications operators. On the other hand, the limits upon concentration in private hands has been liberalized, there has been an automatic extension of private licenses for fifteen years and an extremely neo-liberal interpretation of the latest European directive on audiovisual services in advertising has been introduced.
The result, at this time of the announcement that the elections will be brought forward to November 20th, is a profound reduction of audiovisual pluralism and diversity, both in the public and the private sectors. We are now witnessing a major institutional crisis within RTVE following the resignation of the corporation ' s President Alberto Oliart in July 2011 and the inability of the parties of the political majority to nominate a replacement by a two-thirds majority in the Lower Chamber of Parliament. In addition, private companies have delayed handing over their fees, by taking legal action or reducing their contributions, therefore causing a situation of serious financial crisis for RTVE.
In the private sector, the pattern of proliferation of channels and programmes has proved ruinous, in the midst of the crisis, the 32 national digital programmes and their over 250,000 hours of broadcasting have proved unsustainable. Accordingly, Cuatro has been absorbed by Telecinco and La Sexta is now holding merger talks with Antena 3 , while other less important channels have formed associations to give up competing ( Net TV ) or have suspended their broadcasts ( Veo TV ).
The private panorama is now becoming a new reinforced duopoly, as compared to the private system existing between 1995 and 2005, with more than three-quarters of the advertising market dominated by two groups, Telecinco (Mediaset) and Antena 3 TV (Planeta-Agostini) which have the benefit of eight digital programmes each. The impoverishment of general contents, the diffusion of broadcasting by false thematic channels, the lack of interactive services and the meagre development of Pay per View DTTV are all partial elements of this generalized degradation.
Meanwhile, in the middle of the pre-electoral climate, the two majority parties have still not come to an agreement to appoint the Audiovisual Council as they were legally required to do. Consequently, private television violates all of the Spanish and European regulations with impunity on a daily basis, and the public service lacks the necessary tools for monitoring and security. The audiovisual system is becoming increasingly unbalanced and led by the whims of the market. The abandonment of the principal foundations and experiences of social democracy in the audiovisual sphere is thus leading to the worst effects. |
