Colombia. The National University Channel ZOOM, a cultural proposal that identifies university content in Colombia, celebrates 10 years since its first broadcast. The following is the text with which the channel commemorates its anniversary:
Celebrating a decade makes us rethink the situation of educational and cultural television, although university television had its representation of a local and regional nature, there was no medium that allowed the generation of content for training and entertainment, when even in Colombia the edutainment genre was unknown.
A timeline that reflects the mirror of a culture, of a nation that just in 2018, cries out for quality public education and with greater access routes. With a clamor from the university community, the need for an exclusive window is made to bring closer to the knowledge that is forged in the mater alma of our country, so in 2006 the National Television Commission – CNTV was given the initiative to have a platform for the appropriation of education, culture, research and development gestated from the university academy; In the search for this platform, through agreement 005 the CNTV conceived a television model based on purely cultural and training content, with the help of 52 public and private universities in the country, to form the National University Channel ZOOM, a television project of public interest aimed at nation-building.
To start the project, the universities had the active participation, thus starting with a study of audiences carried out by the Media Observatory of the Universidad de la Sabana, a necessary parameter to know the needs of the public that surrounds itself every day with culture, science and the different academic scenarios. It was 10 months with a test signal of the U TV Channel, satellite broadcasts through the KU band and achieve that on November 8, 2008, university television in Colombia materialized, carrying out the first transmission from the Universidad del Norte in Barranquilla, this first transmission had live links from audiovisual production centers of more than 50 universities in the national territory. From this city the Canal operated its first 5 years, hand in hand with the regional channel Telecaribe.
The programmatic structure of the Channel allowed to establish its operating model, a grid that allowed to deliver to the audience content in daily premiere, it was in this way that a 6x4 grid was generated (6 hours of premiere with 3 rebroadcasts on the same day); diversity has been one of the characteristics of this channel which, since its inception, plurality was raised. Thematic strips were developed among the Regional Technical Committees (6 in their creation) that managed to transcend in the conceptualization of the contents from each of the Colombian geographical regions.
In its fifth year of OPERATION ZOOM, it achieved a transcendental change in its impact and scope, making the migration of its NSS 806 C-band satellite, which allows it to have a wider satellite footprint: America, Europe and North Africa, this achievement was consistent with the transfer of its operation to the national capital.
Throughout these 10 years, the installed capacity of the channel has been strengthened, being the house of great prizes highlighting the national university production, audiovisual narratives, creativity and talent of the university community have been protagonists in ZOOM.
The Channel has taken on the challenge of creating its own content and flagship co-productions, among which are: 'De Mentes', a series of docureportajes on Colombian scientists in which 32 universities participated; 'Coja Oficio', documentary series in which 34 universities participated; 'Espejo Retrovisor', a documentary series in which 18 universities participated; 'Corte Colombiano', a documentary series in which 18 universities participated and production that was nominated for the India Catalina Awards; 'In the Footsteps of the Act of Independence', a documentary in which 3 institutions participated; 'Vidas & bebidas', an international documentary series on the representative alcoholic beverages of Ibero-America and in which 6 countries participated; 'No more violence', a series of clips about the Colombian armed conflict, 3 institutions participated and was the winner of the Best Work on Peace Award at the Journalism Awards of the Círculo de Periodistas de Bogotá - CPB; 'La Paz Posible', documentary about the post-conflict in which 3 institutions participated and which was the winner in 2 categories in the first International Audiovisual, Cultural and Educational Festival 2018; 'Raizal', regional documentary in which 2 institutions participated; and 'De Profesión Actor', the first dramatized of the Channel.
Other great achievements of the Higher Education Institutions – HEIs affiliated to ZOOM, have been the recognitions and nominations obtained in this decade, among which are: 'The Potato, Innovation and Agroindustry' and 'Red Museos', of the Pedagogical and Technological University of Colombia (UPTC), winners in 2010, 'Palenguero' produced by the Autonomous University of the Caribbean (UAC) winner in 2011, 'Two Centuries of Journalism, 200 Years of Opinion' of the Minuto de Dios University Corporation (UNIMINUTO), winner in 2012, 'Masters of Peace' of the University of Cartagena (UdeC), winner in 2013 and 'Birds at Risk' produced by the Pedagogical and Technological University of Colombia (UPTC), all productions awarded in the India Catalina Awards, as 'Best production in science and technology' and 'Best university production, documentary. Likewise, in addition, the production 'Tras las Huella del Acta la Independencia', winner of the Ibero-American Exhibition of Educational, Cultural and Children's Television, Rosario, Argentina, in 2012.
For 6 consecutive years ZOOM has been the organizer of the largest television forum in Latin America: 'TVMORFOSIS', whose last edition was held in one of the cities par excellence audiovisual and entrepreneurial: Cali.
Currently, the university channel integrates different narratives and audiovisual formats, thanks to its large production network, made up of 37 affiliated HEIs nationwide, of which 54% are public and the remaining 46% are private:
In addition, there are 11 international agreements that promote abroad the productions of the universities of the ZOOM house as with the UCR Channel of the University of Costa Rica; TV UNAM the television channel of the National Autonomous University of Mexico; the Audiovisual Workshop of the University of Valencia; Mexico's Channel 22; Xinhua news agency; the University System of Radio, Television and Cinematography of the University of Guadalajara; Channel 13 of the National Radio and Television System of Costa Rica; the National University of Mar de Plata, among others.
The stripes are subjected to a process of conceptualization and continuous creative development that allows to develop special sections inside these containers and are elements of signaling for the audience, not theoretical conceptual categories.
On the other hand, ZOOM is identified by the contents that communicate the needs of the regions and the different perspectives, reflected in its recall according to the latest wave of the General Media Study – EGM, where Bogotá and Medellín are the cities with the highest audience rate, ages 45 to 49, followed by 40 to 44 and with a high growth rate in users from 17 to 29 years old; in the programming parrila now of 8x3 (8 hours of premiere and 2 rebroadcasts on the same day) prevail content formats such as reportage, chronicle, short documentary and magazine, narrative forms that manage to communicate the different scenarios of young culture.
The training has permeated the operational capacity of the Canal, being the home of 57 professionals in training who carried out their academic practices in this audiovisual laboratory.
Ten years after its first broadcast, it is confirmed that the University Channel is an articulating axis of university production in Colombia and Latin America, consolidating a differential point of view in viewers, from the university perspective, through the development of educational, cultural, political and edutainment content; a model of television that is forged with public and private higher education in Colombia and that has managed to become a proposal surrounded and built by the stories of its students, professors, graduates, researchers and academics who identify with the expressions of university culture.
This year, it becomes a stage to explore platforms that encourage the active participation of the academic community; the activation of the ZOOM Channel, manages to consolidate every day more with new productions that reach the programming grid, with a plurality of formats that highlights the opinion of new professionals who complement their education with ZOOM.
These 10 years bring and strengthen university television to the student, specialized and general public to a new way of enjoying one of the media that confirm that university production is the best consumer alternative for the growth of culture and private and public higher education.
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