Colombia. The cycle of community television tables carried out by the National Television Authority, ANTV, concluded in Medellín with a positive balance in terms of information exchange and determination of goals.
With the last working table to socialize the modification to Resolution 433 of 2013, the director of the National Television Authority, Ángela María Mora Soto, in the company of Olga Castaño and Ernesto Orozco, members of the National Television Board, ended the cycle of community television tables, an exercise that was beneficial for both the licensees and the entity. More than 250 people attended the meetings throughout the country and more than 100 consultations were registered that were managed by ANTV officials.
During the tables held in Bogotá, Bucaramanga, Barranquilla, Cali and Medellín, the representatives of the different community television associations expressed various concerns and problems that sometimes hinder and even make impossible the development of their function as providers of a non-profit service, whose sole purpose is to connect their community.
Among the most recurrent concerns and observations of Community television operators in the different regions is the difficulties in acquiring permits for the broadcasting of incidental signals of international origin and of public television operators, likewise, they find it very difficult to disseminate the contents of both private and public national channels. They asked the ANTV to rethink the conditions for the production of their own content, because they are small communities it is difficult for them to cover the costs of content production.
According to the Director of the ANTV, community members need to understand the rules of the game in order to compete in an increasingly demanding market, without losing sight of their non-profit nature and the associative figure that characterizes them. It is important to note that the grounds for license cancellation described in Resolution 433 are not a straitjacket, they are regulatory measures that seek to fully identify licensees and verify that they are providing a quality service that complies with national laws and international treaties that regulate television transmission.
The Director invited participants to approach the ANTV to determine the future of their associations. "Licensees need to be clear about what they want to be, because community television cannot compete with subscription television because they are two completely different models. Once defined how they want to continue operating, the Authority will give them effective ways to continue operating in their model or migrate to another television service."
The message of these working days is that the community television model is very important for the Authority and all the concerns and discussions that occurred in them are a matter of work. Both licensees and representatives of the entity agreed that these spaces with useful and important to clarify doubts and make community television a useful service for citizens, that complies with the rules that govern it and that works in harmony with the other figures that exist in the television market.
Finally, the Director devoted special attention to the confusion generated about the procedures that must be carried out by the community to renew their licenses, since in most cases these are presented due to the misinterpretation or ignorance of the norm.
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