The PSC will register this Wednesday a proposed resolution (a political declaration) within the framework of the general policy debate hosted by the Parliament in which it urges the Government to approve before December 31 of this year the program contract (the contribution of income) sufficient and adapted to the needs of the Corporació de Mitjans Audiovisuals (CCMA). Furthermore, with the aim of "promoting the change" that the Catalan public media requires, they demand that the Executive of Pere Aragonès consider, "if necessary", a modification of the CCMA law.
The Catalan public media operate with a program contract that has expired since 2010 and, despite the fact that the socialists signed an agreement with ERC and Junts for the renewal of positions that depend on the Parliament, among them those of the leadership of the CCMA and of the Audiovisual Consell of Catalonia (CAC), in Salvador Illa's party are dissatisfied with the management of the Government and with the "governance" of the public entity.
The socialist resolution proposal confirms the need to "advance in the transparency of aid to the media", as well as the "desirability of establishing a stable framework" for them through a new program contract, and that their governance be "more shared" and "plural", for which they propose the legal change of the Corporation.
In the text of the resolution, the PSC also proposes that the Parliament urge the Government to exercise greater transparency regarding advertising investments and aid to "all types of conventional and digital media." In this sense, Illa's party intends that all these advertising investments and aid "be mandatory informed by the CAC, so that it issues reports that must "analyze the effectiveness of the expenses and the objectivity of the distribution between the different business groups." Thus , the PSC proposes that the CAC report annually to the parliamentary commission on the evolution of the Catalan public media and "public spending in the sector."
The reason for these demands from the socialists are the production costs of the programming of Catalan public media, such as TV3 and Catalunya Ràdio. The high dependence on external production companies increases costs in media with staff that are considered sufficient to undertake programming. As La Vanguardia published this month, external production companies occupy three out of every four hours on Catalunya Ràdio, so that seventeen out of every 24 hours of the station's programming from Monday to Friday are directed by these external production companies.
