The Situation of National and Regional Public Television in Spain Public Media in the Crossroad
10.2478/nor-2013-0048 Nordicom Review 34 (2013) 1, pp.145-156 The Situation of National and Regional Public Television in Spain Public Media in the Crossroad Karen Arriaza Ibarra Abstract Spain’s Public National Television (TVE) faces the uncertainty of defining its role as the main public broadcaster at a moment when neither the economic situation of the country nor the waning satisfaction with the citizens with TVE, make things any easier. Furthermore, the government announcement of TVE’s withdrawal of advertising in 2009 was widely commented, as there has never been any license fee in support of Spanish public media. On the other hand, the economic crisis that Spain is going through has posed the issue on the need of cutting down governmental expenditures on the desk of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. Will these also include TVE, as it has happened with public regional media? Will Spanish citizens admit the importance of improving TVE now that two gigantic commercial media groups, Mediaset and Planeta, dominate the audiovisual landscape? Keywords: public television, RTVE, TVE, national, Spain. Introduction Even though public television networks were spreading all over Western Europe after WWII, Spain had not yet recovered from the physical, and emotional, injuries inflicted by the Civil War (1936-39) that empowered Franco until his death in 1975. When it came to radio, private broadcasting stations developed successfully in the early 20s in Barcelona and Madrid, and these remained as the only music and information sources until the country plunged into the Civil War. This situation prevailed until April 1 1939, when the victorious official Radio Salamanca announced that the war was over.
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