Dr. Johanna Cleary allowed me to tag along on a field trip for her television students to the leading broadcaster in Catalonia, TV3. We were shown around by Laura Dugo of the station's public relations staff.
The network is like crossing a television station with a movie studio. It produces news and genuine (ahem, America!) children's educational programming. It also produces comedies, soap operas and dramas. We saw set-design shops, a live studio audience and newsrooms with robotic cameras. Its most popular show is a comedy about football (soccer).
TV3 broadcasts everything, including commercials, in Catalan. For the record, Catalan is not a Spanish dialect. It is a distinct language that seems to have as many words in common with French as it does with Spanish. Everyone who works at the station, even the stage hands, must pass a Catalan language test.
The station used to be half-funded by the government, which subsidizes news media that keeps Catalan alive instead of letting everything be in Spanish. But thanks to government belt-tightening, TV3 now gets 70 percent of its revenue from advertising. Still, the government appoints the station's top executive.
About 2,000 people work at the network. Of those, about 250 work in news -- and of those, 11 are based overseas, including Washington, D.C. My guess is that's probably more international reporters than a typical American network has.
Turnover is low, so people must like working for the network, which serves a region with 7 million people.
See the pictures for more.
The network is like crossing a television station with a movie studio. It produces news and genuine (ahem, America!) children's educational programming. It also produces comedies, soap operas and dramas. We saw set-design shops, a live studio audience and newsrooms with robotic cameras. Its most popular show is a comedy about football (soccer).
TV3 broadcasts everything, including commercials, in Catalan. For the record, Catalan is not a Spanish dialect. It is a distinct language that seems to have as many words in common with French as it does with Spanish. Everyone who works at the station, even the stage hands, must pass a Catalan language test.
The station used to be half-funded by the government, which subsidizes news media that keeps Catalan alive instead of letting everything be in Spanish. But thanks to government belt-tightening, TV3 now gets 70 percent of its revenue from advertising. Still, the government appoints the station's top executive.
About 2,000 people work at the network. Of those, about 250 work in news -- and of those, 11 are based overseas, including Washington, D.C. My guess is that's probably more international reporters than a typical American network has.
Turnover is low, so people must like working for the network, which serves a region with 7 million people.
See the pictures for more.
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