Colombia. Cali hosted the second technical table for the construction of a public television policy, in which the Director of the National Television Authority, Ángela María Mora Soto, and the members of the National Television Board, the ICT Minister, David Luna Sánchez, and the main agents of the television industry participated.
The Director of the entity, socialized a technical input and some guidelines for public consultation presented by the commission of experts, hired by the ANTV, which seeks to contribute to the construction of an eventual bill towards the reformulation of public policy of television or audiovisual in Colombia.
The study analyzed aspects such as the audiovisual market in general with a comprehensive review of the structural model of the service, the financing of public television, the opening of markets, the role and intervention of the State, the fundamental rights of promotion and access to audiovisual content, and innovation and institutionality.
This commission, made up of experts Alejandro Piscitelli from Argentina, José Miguel De la Calle from Colombia and Gustavo Gómez from Uruguay, addressed three basic components:
- Evolution and state of audiovisual content and media in the context of the information society, the phenomenon of convergence, multiscreen and multiplatform consumption, the distribution of content through data networks and the internet, asymmetries in access models and the impact of the Digital Divide, from the Colombian perspective.
- Role of the State and the scope of its intervention in the audiovisual services market. Analysis of the Colombian constitutional and legal scenario in terms of public services, fundamental rights, television as a public service, markets and competing economic model, taking into account the situation of public and private supply, the free trade agreements signed by Colombia and the legal implications derived, including transversal aspects such as Technological Neutrality.
- Audiovisual media in Colombia from the perspective of freedom of expression, human rights, the right to communication and the guiding principle of the right of access to information. Regulation compared to other countries in the region, panregional criteria of multilateral organizations such as UN, OAS, ILO.
The members of the Committee of Experts found common considerations, such as the extension of the scope of public television policy to audiovisual services, where they say that the current regulation is inappropriate or inadequate, and that it cannot be regulated around technologies but around principles (Linear Services). Regarding the revision of the competition and concentration regime, they consider that there should be policies that limit concentration, just as access procedures should be reviewed, both for commercial and for other actors.
Likewise, in what has to do with the nature of the service, they assure that it is pertinent to review the implications or category of public service. Another related issue is the Promotion of the production and distribution of national audiovisual content, where it is necessary to develop promotion mechanisms for the production, promotion and national audiovisual distribution, not only for the industrial value, but for the value of providing identities and culture.
Another key point is freedom of expression, diversity, pluralism, inclusion, where the basic premises found are equal opportunities, the inclusion of the public and the commercial, the presence of community agents and emerging groups, and equitable access (in objective terms) to all audiovisual platforms.
In the course of the exercise and the group meetings, the members of the Committee of Experts consider that the Financing of public media is fundamental and therefore ensure that there must be financing for public channels, just as it is necessary that there be concrete requirements for goals, indicators and minimum standards of quality, pluralism and audience as a condition for |allocations of resources to public channels. They also point out that the feasibility from the fiscal and tax point of view of OTT providers contributing to the financing of public television must be studied, and in the same sense, which would imply equalizing asymmetries in terms of consumer protection and promotion of national production.
Finally, they highlight the Institutional Structure, where they maintain that it is necessary to review and strengthen the institutional design and architecture, just as the independence of the sectoral entities from the executive and the economic power must be guaranteed.
For now, there are three sectoral tables in which the collection of positions for the construction of the map of the future of Colombian TV will be complemented, after the first meeting that took place in the city of Cartagena on March 4.
