NationStates Jolt Archive


Commission on Pacitalian television reaches final recommendations

Pacitalia
06-06-2006, 04:14
From La Repubblica Oggia

http://www.repubblica.it/2005/e/sezioni/politica/fed3/ruteboome/agf_6336300_21050.jpg
Carmine Ferragamo, the head of the Broadcasting Standards
and Operations Commission that has been looking for a solution
for the reorganisation of Pacitalian national television since July
2003, presents the group's final report at a press conference
Monday morning in Timiocato.

Cut PBC by forty percent, split PTN in two: BSOC
Commission calls for "level playing field" for English, Pacitalian networks; more competitive providers


Manti Soratina-Murana, Timiocato

After nearly three years of analysing the national television market and attempting to find solutions to the disparity widely perceived to be rampant among Pacitalian broadcasters, the Broadcasting Standards and Operations Commission (BSOC) has finally submitted its report of recommendations to the federal government.

The report noted a "massive struggle against disparity caused by the might of the Pacitalian Broadcasting Corporation (PBC)," saying that "PBC's position as the television network of record in the Democratic Capitalist Republic of Pacitalia and the favourable status it enjoys from the federal and provincial governments, despite no longer being a state-owned enterprise, has choked possible competition from other commercial broadcasters and allowed some broadcasters to embark on ventures that are either financially or managerially untenable."

Lead commissioner Carmine Ferragamo said "the commission's recommendations provide sound restructuring to the television market in this country and allow for a consortium of stable, healthy, competitive and fiscally responsible broadcasters with limited, or at least decreased, disparity of market share."

Ferragamo told reporters that "with the new standards of broadcasting market share must be earned by the networks, not donated," implying that the PBC gained and held such a crushing market share from being the only national broadcaster up until 1978. As well, PBC is still the only national broadcaster permitted to operate more than three networks (it currently operates four plus an HDTV-only network).

But as of the first of September at the earliest, the commission says in its report, this must change. The BSOC recommended to the federal government that the PBC shut down its fourth and fifth networks (the latter being the HDTV network), and that it must integrate its HDTV programming into the three remaining networks. It also recommended limitation of PBC's ActiveTV capability to the main PBC1 network and a "new shows cap" of 15 percent to allow the other new networks to compete for potentially high-viewership programming. The "new shows cap" is meant to encourage the production of more new home-grown programming, the commissioners added.

The report also recommends splitting the Pacitalian Television Network, the Republic's second-largest and second-oldest national broadcaster, into two separately-owned halves to "focus more on quality of program and quality of management." PTN has lost ratings and credibility for cuts to its news department as well as betting on programming that consistently fails among viewers. PTN tried to reinvent itself last year as a prime network for the 18-34 demographic, bringing in popular shows like The O.C. and Laguna Beach but that experiment is also widely seen as a failure.

The report calls for, by the end of the changeover period, five English-language networks and three Pacitalian-language networks, leaving room for two more broadcasters by 2010, one solely providing Romanian and Spanish-language programming, the other Greek-language. The report said "such a set up would truly represent the current distribution of Pacitalian citizens, based on what languages they speak and what programming they desire in their homes".

The commission also recommended the Pacitalian News Network provide both the existing 24-hour English television service and a second 24-hour Pacitalian television service by 1st September. PNN is one of the world's foremost national all-news broadcasters.

In depth - under the new recommended system

PBC 1 (English)
PBC 2 (Pacitalian)
PBC 3 (Greek, Romanian and Spanish)

Second commercial broadcaster (English-language, formerly PTN1)
Third commercial broadcaster (English-language, formerly PTN2)
Fourth commercial broadcaster (English-language, formerly TSP)
Fifth commercial broadcaster (English-language, formerly TPac)
Sixth commercial broadcaster (Pacitalian-language, formerly RLP)
Seventh commercial broadcaster (Pacitalian-language, formerly CTP)
Eighth commercial broadcaster (Pacitalian-language, launching early 2007)

Ninth commercial broadcaster (Greek-language, launching by 2010)
Tenth commercial broadcaster (Romanian/Spanish-language, launching by 2010)

PNN in English
PNN in Pacitalian

Local independent stations (terrestrial availability)
Analogue cable specialty networks
Digital cable specialty networks
Pay-to-view networks
SatNex networks
SignalCast networks
ActiveTV / ActiveCast networks

The report stated "all ten commercial broadcasters must provide terrestrial signal availability for non-cable and non-satellite subscribers". The 303-page document ended by saying "these recommendations are meant to cement Pacitalia's place as the premier nation for media provision and television broadcasting." Provided the federal government accepts the recommendations, the BSOC will then begin its investigation into the state of national radio after it is finished supervising the transition into the "New TV Landscape", as observers both in and outside Pacitalia are calling it.
Pacitalia
06-06-2006, 04:52
Bumpage for the next 3 hours.
Pacitalia
06-06-2006, 07:20
And a final bump for the night
Southeastasia
29-08-2006, 13:09
[OOC: Pac, sorry to bump up an old thread, but I've a question - can we have my TV media network company, Channel NewsAsia, function in the DCRP ICly?]