Chile. The historic Cousiño Palace was the setting for the presentation of the CNTV 2025 Fund, which distinguished 17 television productions that will contribute to enriching the national screen with quality content and public sense.
The Deputy Secretary General of Government, Erwin Díaz, highlighted the relevance of the CNTV Fund as a strategic tool of the State to strengthen the country's cultural identity and promote television that reflects its diversity, memory and democratic values. In his speech, he stressed that the Fund not only constitutes financial support for the audiovisual industry, but also an expression of the collective conviction that television must contribute to the construction of a plural Chile with a public sense.
The President of the CNTV, Mauricio Muñoz, highlighted the relevance of the decentralization of financing and the unprecedented participation of community channels in this year's call, which doubled the number of awarded projects compared to previous versions.
"This year, as in previous years, more than a third of the fund's resources are directed towards projects developed in regions. Along with the regional projects, we also welcome, as a Council, having expanded the participation of community television in the fund. This year we have not only awarded four projects – which is unprecedented, as we doubled the number of winners on previous occasions – but we have also opened a window that has to do with competing to finance programming, in quotation marks, standard, and scheduled programming. (…) I think what we have done with community television is a milestone."
Muñoz also referred to the challenges faced by the CNTV Fund in the context of technological changes and audiovisual consumption. He raised the need to review its design and public management mechanisms without stopping its continuity, emphasizing that the modernization process must be carried out "in progress", maintaining support for national creation and adapting to the new scenario of multiple screens and platforms.
"We are going to review the initial design of the fund, the instruments and the measurement. That is not done in a few days or by suspending the execution of the contest next year. It is done as a reform in progress, as reforms have been made in the sectors of the Chilean State. When the education system was reformed in the nineties, schools were not closed, schools continued to operate. (…) The fund was born when there was only open television. Today we have the platformization of screens, where open television is one more component of the broadcast of content that the fund finances," he concluded.
During the ceremony, a special recognition was given to journalist Augusto Góngora for his career and contribution to Chilean television. The tribute was received by his life partner, Paulina Urrutia, and his daughter, Javiera Góngora.
For details of the 17 winning projects, click here.
