An issue to take into account on the occasion of the arrival of DTT in Colombia, is that this "unknown" technology opens a new panorama of possibilities for a type of user sometimes undervalued: childhood.By:
Luis Fernando Gutierrez Cano
Luis Jorge Orcasitas Pacheco
Digital Terrestrial Television, DTT, is just around the corner and in several sectors of the country it remains a great unknown, not only for users but even for the various agents of the audiovisual industry, which means digital ignition. Undoubtedly, there are advances but it is necessary to develop actions for the future management of both technical, economic and content because public and private channels will soon be obliged to broadcast under the technological possibilities of DTT throughout the Colombian territory.
As digital terrestrial technology is the first digital tool universalized in all homes, it is imperative that all citizens know the scope of the medium, precisely to understand, use and enjoy it. Similarly, this process should serve as a method of bridging the digital divide, especially in developing countries like ours. It is about all Colombians having access to DTT, thus generating the universality of technology. Today we are living a technological revolution that must also be social, cultural and educational.
DTT means a considerable increase in services, these will be generated more as users understand and handle technology fluently. In this sense, literacy campaigns should aim to teach the use, services and possibilities for agents of the environment beyond the fact that we all know what DTT is. As many consider that the most important thing is the quality of the content through television, in this sense the content must be the engine that drags the audience to DTT (Peris Blanes, 2011. Cited in Levante-EMV) so that the citizen appropriates this new technology.
Strategies for brand identity
If Colombia wants to continue betting on this platform, it is necessary to make the effort to develop attractive content that allows the convergence of television media with other media such as the Internet or mobile telephony.
As advertising sales are increasingly fragmented and as audiences are increasingly faced with more media, as Vilajoana Alejandre (2015) explains, today as there is never more media, channels and communication, it will be important to create branding (process of making and building a brand, in English, brand equity), through the strategic management of the total set of assets linked directly or indirectly to the name and / or symbol (logo) that identify the brand (De San Eugenio Vela, 2012). Fact that influences the value of the brand, both for the client and for the company that owns the brand, that is, a brand image that differentiates the product from the competition. Plurality should not be confused with quality. Each chain finds its own target, experts say.
DTT and childhood
Another issue to take into account on the occasion of the arrival of Digital Terrestrial Television in Colombia, is that this "unknown" technology opens a new panorama of possibilities for a type of user sometimes undervalued: childhood. Now, children and young people are far from that single-network television or two networks, at most, that previous generations have lived.
DTT changes the position of the child as the subject to which the programming is directed and as a consumer subject. (González, Prato and Volart, 2012). With DTT, how will children consume? Given this new panorama, for example in Spain, since the implementation of digital television, the consumption of adult programming has decreased considerably in children's audiences and the consumption of children's programs has increased. Spanish children and young people mainly consume programs of the fiction genre. Also, since 2010 the consumption of television in the night time has decreased.
In Colombia, a children's television in TD that goes from a monolithic state to a more diversified one must be considered. Channels, especially public ones, have a great challenge with children's programming in DTT: they must think about content for children and youth, suitable for their development, not only thinking about fiction or cartoon programs, but a television for training, cultural and educational purposes from the strategic vision that allows DTT and the convergence of television with other media.
In this regard, public television should seek to contribute to the effective training of children and young people in the country, as individuals, through quality television; and for that we must move from the monolithic (a television of only enjoyment), to move to a television that provides spaces for training and education for children, through a diversified model that generates social profitability.
The diversified model implies
In the first place, the structure and flow of programming must be defined very clearly, taking into account the target audience or audiences to which the age ranges equivalent to the stages of cognitive-affective growth are configured (4-5; 6-9; 9-12; 12-15). Immediately, efforts should be made to adopt other genres and formats (cooperation and collaboration agreements with different entities of the educational spectrum of the country, region or locality, such as educational institutions of various kinds, mayors, parent boards, higher education centers, civic entities, among others).
From these initiatives, it is very feasible to achieve that multiple activities can be staged, for the benefit of children and young people, such as audiovisual products of an educational type that are capable of addressing different areas and disciplines, yes, that have as a central axis the school representatives themselves, with the purpose of generating knowledge to large groups of students.
Then they can be carried out directly in study, for example, that are able to stage real activities that are developing in the moment, based on examples of activities of social and educational interest (children's debates about their perception of the world and their concerns, etc.). As a final step, it is advisable, not only the realization of loose audiovisual products, but to package serial and cumulative programs over time, structured, taking into account well-defined training environments.
From these four stages, it is feasible to captivate children and young people, bringing them closer in a methodical and constructive way, to and establish much more harmonious relationships, within didactic environments, with their family, school, civic and social environment.
What do you gain?
Indisputably, this type of action would generate an enrichment of the basic conception of the staff of a production company or television channel, as the interdisciplinarity factor becomes essential; likewise, a new competition scenario would be configured that can lead the medium to truly be a real option.
On the contrary, if it is not done, television risks progressively losing the audience that it held captive for a long time, agreeing with Levis (2008), that the audience of today's television is far from being that captive audience of the past, on the basis of which television has built the social imaginary on which it continues to rest.
New content
Something that should worry the agents that are part of the DTT panorama in Colombia, has to do with various investigations developed in Western European countries that have already carried out the analog blackout, and that conclude that the programming on digital television in those countries, show processes that are carried out exactly as their analog predecessors did. According to the experience of Argentina, it is necessary to focus the implementation of Digital Television on:
Content production: The realization of national content that promotes cultural, sports, artistic, educational, and children's programs.
National production and job creation: The promotion of the production of the equipment required for the transmission and reception of digital signals.
Scientific development and training of human resources: The training of personnel for DTT in technical and scientific aspects.
Similarly, it is a fact that historically, the production and distribution of content on national television has been concentrated in Bogotá, in a centralist manner, and, as stated above, with high penetration of content broadcast by private channels.
There is a great challenge there, especially for public television, which must tend to design new ways to distribute the new signals available, within the framework of a commercial television system, concentrated and with a public television that has traditionally been characterized by being highly politicized (especially regional and local channels), and without a really clear content policy.
The next article will address an interesting proposal, which is already underway in Argentina countries, aimed at achieving a novel alternative for the generation of content in Digital Television, which manage to capture the attention of users, with a view to achieving greater participation of citizens in processes of education, government, employment and entertainment, with an inclusive character.
*Luis Jorge Orcasitas Pacheco is a Social Communicator-Journalist at the Pontifical Bolivarian University. Master in Theory and Practice of Creative Documentary, Autonomous University of Barcelona. Professor of the Faculty of Social Communication-Journalism at the Pontifical Bolivarian University. Professor of the Faculty of Audiovisual Communication, Jaime Isaza Cadavid Polytechnic. Audiovisual director and documentary filmmaker. Member of the Research Group on Urban Communication-GICU, Faculty of Social Communication-Journalism of the Pontifical Bolivarian University.
*Luis Fernando Gutiérrez Cano, Social Journalist communicator from the Pontifical Bolivarian University, specialist in television from the Javeriana University and Master in education from the Tecnológico de Monterrey. University professor, producer, director and television programmer. He received the Emmi Award for the strong support of the special in Sintonía con los niños (Canal Capital), the India Catalina, the Armando Devia Moncaleano and the Amway Award for the best university television programs in the country.
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