Untitled - socium.ge

392 Imma TubellaIn Galicia, autonomous television (TVG) appeared later than in Cataloniaand the Basque Country. Broadcasting began in July 1985. As the two otherchannels, Galician Television began as an instrument to normalize the use ofGalician culture and language in addition to serving as the sociocultural backbonefor community cohesion.The Third Channel Law came into force at the end of 1984, months afterthe Basques and Catalans had begun broadcasting, believing that their right tobroadcast was not dependent on the state and maintaining that their ownstatutes of autonomy, in combination with relevant clauses in the Constitution,protected their action in this area.By 1990, eleven autonomous broadcasting organizations were approved,seven of which had already begun broadcasting on a daily basis. In 1989, thesesystems agreed to merge into a national federation of autonomous broadcasters,known as FORTA, 3 creating a network of public broadcasters, a confederationmore than a federation with the aim of buying programs andnegotiating with major American production companies, such as Metro,Orion, and Columbia, jointly rather than individually. Participating in FORTAare autonomous systems from the Basque Country, Catalonia, Andalusia,Galicia, Valencia, Madrid, Castilla la Mancha, and Murcia.Autonomous television broke the monopoly of television in Spain and ranas a duopoly for several years before the emergence of private television in1990. By the late 1980s, with only three autonomous TV networks and onestate-based network (commercial TV had not yet started) the total investmentin TV advertising had been pushed up to more than 1,000 percent of investmentin 1975. In the first few months, the audiences of these autonomousnetworks reached 50 percent. The transition to democracy in Spain must beunderstood in relation to the media transition that helped stage the difficultchanges in state structure and the debate on the role of media; in particular, therole of television helped social cohesion and the construction of cultural andcollective identity.To understand the present media space and the building of national publicspheres in Europe, to understand the quest for a European identity and howpublic television is positioned within the global commercial culture, we haveto take into consideration this kind of identity building through the media. Forthis purpose, the autonomous television networks broadcasting in the Spanishstate provide a clear case study. In this chapter, therefore, I am going to lookin depth at the case of Catalan Television.Catalan Television (TVC) is a public enterprise created on September 11,1983 to run and operate the television channels of the Catalan BroadcastingCorporation. Since its inception, TVC has sought to reflect the identity of acountry and has helped to build and rebuild this identity.TVC broadcasts in the Catalan language with a global vision. It has two