Presentation

The Mercat Audiovisual de Catalunya once more makes Granollers the meeting point for the local and regional audiovisual sector. The MAC, given its characteristics, constitutes a singular event within the European sphere, as the leading fair in the sector adressing, specifically, technology companies that provide services for mid-range television companies.

This year, among other features, it will enjoy the presence of local television channels from the different autonomous communities in order to carry out an analysis of their social and cultural presence. Radio is also a protagonist among the media of this ninth event, with conferences on the new formats that have emerged following the implementation of digital distribution systems.

A prominent new feature of this MAC’08 is the I International Local Television Exhibition, which will screen and award prizes during an exhibition of the best programmes broadcast in this sphere. Moreover, the MAC Prize awards, which aim to incentivise production, quality and innovation in the audiovisual sector, reach their third year.

I wish the organisers all the success that they deserve in their continuing commitment to creation, the industry, communication and culture. Their work will also ensure a profitable stay for the professionals from our own and other countries who for these few days will make Granollers the audiovisual city par excellence and thus put it on the map of the future.

Joan Manuel Tresserras
Regional Minister for Culture and the Media

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The Audiovisual MAC consolidation

From a perspective of progress and social wellbeing, it seems evident that with globalisation, everybody wins. History has not come to an end, nor has any single way of thinking been imposed. The world is a more open place than ever, and one with many more tools and opportunities, with a much broader scope and dimensions for tackling social challenges.

The case of information and communication is, in this sense, very well known. Our country has lived through a substantial renovation of its media, especially in the audiovisual sphere. The arrival on the scene of private television channels and digital pay platforms, the Internet boom, the revolution of audiovisual technology through mobile telephones and, finally, the already half-attended horizon of digital terrestrial television have put us before an information and communication offering of exceptional richness and diversity. We have access to more media and resources than ever, and what is needed is for them to reach the quality standard that society demands.

Within this context, the Mercat Audiovisual de Catalunya, in barely a decade, has become a touchstone for calibrating the status, experiences and perspectives of the audiovisual sector from the orbit of the local world, from a position close to the people. Because technological innovation has been taken on board enthusiastically in the villages, towns and cities of Catalonia, in a new and palpable demonstration that globalisation also has a clear local dimension.

This year the Diputació de Barcelona is pleased to greet this meeting once more and to reaffirm its commitment to a strong and modern audiovisual sector at the service of people and with an important local accent.

Antoni Fogué
President of the Diputació de Barcelona

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A present project for the future

For the last few years the Audiovisual Market of Catalonia has been a present loaded with opportunities.

Opportunities in the promising and real relations between cultural productions and the media, and this year we can have a sample of these with projects such as the cultural ring, dance for television or the challenges of cultural diversity.

An opportunity to contribute to the construction of the Catalan space for communication; a space that we are building with legislative tools and public policies to make our own communication system.

An opportunity to be a reference point and catalyst for local communication and especially in its television format, now in the thrilling digital world.

An opportunity to capture synergies and to be actors in global communication.

An opportunity to get to know ourselves better, based on audience-measuring tools and especially the Communication and Culture Barometer that measures cultural and communication consumption around the Catalan-speaking territories.

The Audiovisual Market of Catalonia has to work on these opportunities throughout the entire year, becoming a driving force capable of making us move along main roads and motorways full of geographies of knowledge, so that citizens can have access to offers of plural contents that are committed to our cultural reality and its creation ecosystems.

The MAC, like Catalonia, is a present project for the future that wants to call us to build, from communication and culture, our country, our society, with the complicity of the professional sectors.

Lluís Noguera i Jordana
General Secretary of the Department of Culture and Media Generalitat de Catalunya

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Meeting point for the local audiovisual sectors

Another year has passed, and having reached its ninth event, the MAC again opens its doors to local audiovisual sectors in Catalonia. It is clear that during previous events the MAC has managed to fulfil its proposal to become a space for meeting and reflection of great renown and attraction, as evidenced by the cooperation and complicity of virtually all those involved in local communication.

So let us greet this new event with its dual aspect as a technology fair and contents market, while highlighting other elements that imbue it with special interest and personality, such as the debates, which this year will focus on the technological modernisation of local television and new radio formats, the Exhibition of programmes for local television and the Audiovisual MAC Prizes. Moreover, it is evident that the Market will contribute, for yet another year, towards providing important support elements and accompaniment for the local audiovisual communication sector in the process of starting up digital terrestrial television in our country. As we are all well aware, this is one of the sector’s main challenges and occupations, and it is quite certain that whatever happens at the MAC will mean an effective contribution that will benefit the different actors involved. I am therefore convinced that, together, we can all look forward to enjoying the MAC in Granollers.

Josep Maria Carbonell
President of the Audiovisual Council of Catalonia

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The Radio consolidates his presence at Audiovisual MAC

Last year radio was incorporated into the MAC so that the event became fully audiovisual. The Conference titled “New formats, new contents” was highly successful in terms of both participation and professional level. This year we aim to consolidate the presence of the radio medium at this event to make it an annual meeting point for the different members of the sector: operators, professionals, advertisers, etc...
The collaboration between the MAC and the Observatori this year will materialise in the holding of a conference where the 1st report on the sector in Cataluña will be presented. The aim of this study is to produce a balance of the sector in its fundamental aspects: structure (types of broadcasters and operators), legislative and regulatory policies, offering (types of programming), audience, etc.....
Experts in each of the subjects, who have taken part in producing this report, will present the most important conclusions and take part in a discussion with the audience attending.

This event aims to become one of the Market’s classic activities, as the Observatory’s will is to continue producing the report every year with the aim of constructing a historical sequence of data that allows the evolution of this medium in Catalonia to be seen.
As a complement to the presence of radio at the IMAC, other activities and meetings for the sector are being prepared.

Josep Maria Martí
Director de l'Observatori de la Ràdio.

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