Spain

[ES] The CAC approves the report on the CCMA’s fulfillment of its public service missions in 2019

IRIS 2021-9:1/11

Mònica Duran Ruiz

Catalan Audiovisual Council

The Plenary session of the regulatory authority, Consell de l'Audiovisual de Catalunya (Catalan Audiovisual Council — CAC), held on 8 September, approved Agreement 73/2021 on the Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals' (Catalan Media Corporation — CCMA) fulfilment of the public service missions assigned by Ley 22/2005, de 29 de diciembre, de la comunicación audiovisual de Cataluña (Law 22/2005, of 29 December, on audiovisual communication in Catalonia — LCA). The CAC report analyses the content broadcast and disseminated by the CCMA during 2019.

Among the items treated in the CAC report, it is relevant to mention that, according to the monitoring, the topics that received the most attention on TV3 —the main television generalist channel — were, in order, the relationship between Catalonia and Spain (largely due to the monitoring of the trial in the Supreme Court), international politics, and cultural events.

Regarding political pluralism, the CAC report states that the Government of Catalonia is the executive body that gathers the most speaking time on both TV3 (15.4%) and Catalunya Ràdio (22.1%), unlike in 2018, when it was behind the State executive. In 2018 its presence was reduced because it had not taken office until half a year later, when the application of Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution, whereby Catalonia's autonomy had been temporarily suspended, was lifted. Among the groupings of parties, the interventions of PSC/PSOE (Catalan and Spanish Socialist parties) with Units per Avançar are the ones that accumulate the most time on TV3's newscasts, while PDECAT with JUNTSxCAT and the Crida Nacional per la República come first on Catalunya Ràdio.

As for language and culture, the report states that the different television and radio channels have Catalan as their main language and Aranese is used in certain broadcasts. Catalan is also the language used in more than 85% of commercials, a figure slightly higher than in 2018 (83.6%).  Concerning culture, the report outlines that the CCMA contributes to the promotion of the Catalan cultural industry through various channels, one of which is the broadcasting of programs developed with the participation of independent producers. In 2019, the weight of those productions represented 26.7% of the production time made by TVC (the broadcasting arm of CCMA, whose main channel is TV3) in Catalonia, almost five percentage points more than in the previous year.

In relation to the presence of women, this decreases compared to 2018 and stands at 26.9% on TV3 and 29.9% on Catalunya Ràdio. On another note, according to the CAC report, the CCMA addresses the diversity of Catalan society both across the grid and within specific programming. Programmes for minors are also very relevant. The CCMA channel that is specifically aimed at children and young people is Super3, which in 2019 increased its broadcasts by half an hour a day.

The CAC report also monitors the implementation of accessibility mechanisms for people with functional diversity. With records similar to 2018, the CCMA televisions channels, broadcast content adapted for people with hearing impairments with the use of subtitling and sign language. The audio description mechanism for the visually impaired significantly increased compared to 2018. In addition, the audio-description service built into on demand content was maintained.