Variations in the audiovisual landscape

The Colombian TV landscape has entered a profound recomposition. The model that prevailed for years had shown goodness but also serious blockages. Among the first were the development of small, medium and large TV companies that were able to survive without too onerous demands, as well as state support in technical infrastructure of production and, especially, of transmission, in a country with considerable difficulties in this matter due to its geographical configuration. Also the development of genres such as telenovela and dramatized, which after several decades can present their own identity and quality that is already internationally recognized.

Among the blockades were political interference in TV decisions, limitations on schedules – which did not allow the growth of companies with enough elements to do so – the heavy burden of state regulations and untimely changes in the rules of the game.

The change is not simply due to the constitutional amendments that in 1991 opened the possibility to any citizen to found mass media, but, above all, to the evolution of the medium itself, which required urgent and necessary changes; transformations together with the vertiginous technological innovation, the flexibility of a programming that must always be prepared for changes and the generation of an audiovisual industry with enough strength to supply domestic markets, but also to place its products in the demanding international markets.

Laws 182 and 335 radically renewed the situation. On the one hand, they opened the floodgates to freely offer the viewer an important range of alternatives. While channels 1 and A remain in their mixed structure, they will tend to deregulate more in order to compete on an equal footing with the other modalities in the market. Both their programming and their participation in the total advertising pattern will change markedly with a possible impact on the quality of their production These networks have some black clouds on the horizon. The first is the uncertainty of a six-year permanence until the next tender, which prevents programmers from carrying out long-term projects and assuming investments that may be pending the thread of the decisions of others. Added to this are the difficulties experienced by Inravisión (National Institute of Radio and Television) and, in particular, its technical deterioration that may end up influencing the quality of the transmission of the signal, if necessary forecasts are not carried out.

A fundamental challenge for the current channels will be to achieve a real profile as a channel, that is, to integrate into a whole the proposals of the different programmers. Fragmentation would cause weaknesses in the competition, slowness in programming decisions – which are now made faster – and an image of "mosaic" unattractive to audiences. Meanwhile, DirecTV has already begun to operate in the country – with an important acceptance–; and the next entry of other coded satellite television companies is expected.

Colombian audiences had already had experiences of access to international TV. As in no other country, in a very accelerated way, the satellite dishes began to appear not only in the middle and upper class neighborhoods but also in the popular ones. Even so, national programming has been widely accepted. A large part of the most watched programs on open television have always been Colombians, although the situation may vary with the excessive increase in external supply.

The reception of DTH will depend on the variety of channels offered; for now, in a large country with complex topography, its technology allows access to information and entertainment possibilities that were not previously available. Cable is one of the most promising modalities, especially when it achieves significant coverage through optical fiber. The law allows a review of the presence of advertising – which was previously restricted – but perhaps the greatest attraction of this type of television is, in addition to the offer of channels and pay per view, serve as a platform to surf the Internet and, towards the near future, for the development of interactivity.

The delivery of the first two private television frequencies to RCN and Caracol is one of the most important transformations. With adequate technical infrastructure, good economic support, their own guidelines and years of experience in television production, the two companies have, however, key challenges: structuring an integral channel programming, developing capacity in the management of information – very advanced in radio but little in TV– prepare for a competition in which the advertising market does not grow in the same proportions and enter to creatively change some of the routines built by audiences over the years.

But there are still more variations in the portfolio of decisions of the National Television Commission. One of the most important and innovative will be the creation of private local channels with possibilities of national chaining with other stations in a very important percentage of their programming. This modality will be, without a doubt, another actor of the national television competition; it will involve groups that require smaller economic investments, that will try to take risks collectively, that will be able to find more specific audience niches. But they will also have to face the uncertainty of an unprecedented operation in the country, the difficulties of their relationship with other channels to reach programming agreements with national coverage and the possible saturation of the markets.

While the regional channels redesign their intervention in the new circumstances, Canal Capital and TeleAndina appear. The first – which is already issuing a test signal – has the opportunity to go out in advance to take the Bogota audience, one of the most important for the pattern it mobilizes and its influence on social decision-makers. Canal Capital has opted to set up an attractive channel, close to urban problems, innovative and young. In its programming, surely, you will see groups of independent producers and institutional proposals that look for other languages to reach viewers. Only in this way can it become a real alternative, in the midst of a range of possibilities that has expanded. Community channels will be another interesting modality. With penetration in towns, neighborhoods and small communities they have shown an important activity to defend their rights and an enormous creativity to reach their audiences with close narratives. They will mean an opportunity to support the democratization of the media as well as the connection between television and social processes.

The variations in the Colombian audiovisual landscape will rethink routines and customs of years. The centralization of decisions and regulations in the National Television Commission, the mobility of programming that for years was regulated, the growth of the television offer with the impulse to genres and formats that so far have not grown enough, the development of production systems that allow to supply the market, and the flexibility in technological innovation are just some of the traces of the new topography. A topography that hopefully can encompass the cultural diversity and social polyphony of a country that also wants to be imagined on its television. TV&V