TV3 (Catalan TV channel)

It is funded by the regional autonomous government, the Generalitat de Catalunya, through the CCMA.

History[edit]

TV3 started its trial broadcasts on 10 September 1983 (a day right before the National Day of Catalonia), but its regular broadcasts started a few months later, on 16 January 1984.^[2] TV3 was the first television channel to broadcast only in Catalan. In 1985, TV3 expanded its coverage to Andorra, Northern Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community, also Catalan-speaking territories. Since 1985, Montse Armengou Martín has co-directed award-winning documentary films.^[3] One year later, TV3 inaugurated its new headquarters in Sant Joan Despí, near Barcelona.^[2]


Since 1987, TV3 has broadcast a second audio channel on almost all foreign-language series and movies with the original program audio,^[2] first using the Zweikanalton system and currently using NICAM. Local series and movies are usually broadcast in NICAM stereo, although sometimes an audio narration track for blind and visually impaired viewers is provided instead. On other occasions, an Aranese language track is provided.


In 1988, TV3 started a decentralization process, first broadcasting programs in the Aranese dialect of Occitan for the Aran Valley and, one year later, opening branch offices in Tarragona, Girona and Lleida and creating the Telenotícies Comarques, a regional news program broadcast simultaneously in five different editions, one for each of the four Catalan provinces and a fifth one for Aran, the former four being united into one national broadcast in 2017.^[4]


In 1995, Televisió de Catalunya launched TVCi, a satellite channel that broadcasts a selection of programs from TV3, El 33, 3/24, and Esports 3 through the Astra and Hispasat satellites (renamed to TV3CAT from June 2009). The channel ceased to broadcast via satellite on 1 May 2012. Still, it continues to broadcast on cable TV throughout Spain, especially in the Balearic Islands (via DVB-T) and on the internet.


In 2002, broadcasts started using the digital terrestrial television system. TV3 gradually migrated its programmes to the 16:9 screen format, and since 2010 all output has been broadcast in widescreen. A trial high-definition television channel was launched on 23 April 2007,^[5] making it the first station in Spain to use the format, and the first major station to use 16:9.


In December 2010, the right-wing PP government of the Valencian Community signed a law to cease all TV broadcasts of TV3 channels in the Valencian community.^[6] Five years later, in 2016, the new Valencian socialist government presided by Ximo Puig signed a reciprocity agreement with the Generalitat de Catalunya, according to which TV3 would be broadcast again in the Valencian community while À Punt would be broadcast in Catalonia;^[7][8] however, this was never realised due to the Spanish government's refusal to provide the necessary feed.^[9]

Criticisms and controversies[edit]

Since the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia reform referendum, including the 2006 Generalitat elections and the June 2007 municipal elections, all the electoral information during a campaign broadcast by TV3 news programmes is unsigned as TV3 (and most Catalan) reporters object to the rules that assign the air time of each political party and the order they air in the order of electoral seats won at the previous election (the more seats, the more airtime and first on air) and not based on objective and professional criteria.^[32] On several occasions, journalists' unions have denounced those known as "electoral blocks" imposed by the Electoral Board. These are propaganda spaces of the political parties and, according to the News Council of public channels such as TV3, TVE, and BTV (Barcelona Televisió), do not comply with the principles of impartiality, pluralism, and neutrality, so in each election campaign, the spectators can see how the journalists have placed a badge on which they put "Fora Blocs" (not to the electoral blocks).^[33][34]


On the other hand, political parties and civil organisations have also criticized that TV3 serves the Catalan nationalist sector as a political tool and does not fairly represent different opinions on the question of national identity in Catalonia.^[35] Likewise, some mainstream newspapers have also published several articles criticizing TV3 for favoring the views of the Catalan Government^[36][37] or empathizing with the independentism movement^[38] International observers have noticed these same newspapers have enthusiastically supported the constitutionalist (anti-independence) campaign,^[39] which lead those newspapers, ideologically related to the Spanish right-wing,^[40] to try to raise doubts about the observers' actions.^[41]


However, a study by the Consell de l’Audiovisual de Catalunya (Catalonia's Audiovisual Council), an independent regulating institution elected by the Catalan Parliament,^[42] concluded that TV3 is the television that gives the most neutral and balanced political coverage, giving voice to both the pro-independence parties and those opposed to it, unlike other channels (like TVE, Telecinco or Antena 3), which only showed a partial constitutionalist view of the issue.^[43][44] As an example, 97.9% of TVE's talk-show guests defended the referendum was illegal, while TV3 had guests defending different views of the issue: that of the referendum being legal, illegal but legitimate and illegal.^[45] TV3 also gave voice to seven political parties across the spectrum, while TVE and Telecinco only gave voice to four, none of them representing the Catalan nationalist movement.^[43] Some, like Telecinco, even went as far as vetoing the presence of pro-independence guests in their programs.^[45] TV3's plurality has also been confirmed by neutral international observers.^[46] CAC once again called TV3 the most plural in November 2018. According to their study, they gave voice to 30 different political groups.^[47]


The public budget for TV3 and Catalunya Ràdio in 2013 was 295.9 million euros both surpassing any public media of Spain,^[48] and has been criticized on several occasions the high cost of TV3.^[49][50]


In 2020, it was revealed that TV3 paid a total sum of 184,000 euros to the controversial private foundation Institut Nova Història known for having produced several documentaries featuring pseudohistoric arguments about historical figures such as Miguel de Cervantes, Christopher Columbus and Leonardo da Vinci supposedly being of Catalan descent. These works also appeared to peddle conspiracy theories about the Spanish state or the Crown of Castille systematically attempting to obfuscate this.^[51]