All In A Day’s Lack Of Work

On one day last week, three things happened which, while they may initially seem to be unrelated, aren’t. One was the closure of TV Mallorca, the second was an announcement by the government that financial support for various fairs would not be forthcoming, and the third was a protest by musicians.

TV Mallorca’s demise was inevitable. It was arguably unnecessary and superfluous given the existence of IB3, so the Partido Popular had targeted it for the chop, and chopped it has now been.

But TV Mallorca went beyond being just another broadcaster. It was a source of contracts, employment and encouragement for those in the audiovisual industry, one of the very few areas of activity in Mallorca that has had anything like some sort of growth recently.

At the same time as Microsoft and the local audiovisual industry are demonstrating that they can be innovative in coming up with solutions for other parts of the economy, i.e. tourism, it seems somewhat perverse to be undermining this very industry. The government will argue, of course, that it is the private sector, in the form of Microsoft or whoever, which should be the impulse behind innovation and growth, but it does also require governments to stimulate industry. Quite how Josep Aguiló, minister for both finance and business, squares the competing demands is unclear. Or rather, it is clear enough. Finance, or lack of it, wins.

The government’s spokesperson, Rafael Bosch, has hinted that the government has a cunning plan for investment in the audiovisual industry, so those at TV Mallorca who now find themselves on the dole plus the production companies that have lost business can presumably breathe a sigh of relief. Unfortunately, what this cunning plan is, is also unclear.

Within Aguiló’s wide remit is responsibility for fairs and congresses. The body which oversees these has made it clear that events have to be self-financing and that the government is not prepared to lose money on them. Among the fairs is the Palma Boat Show, scheduled to take place from 28 April to 6 May next year. The chances are that it won’t.

The viability of the boat show is open to further question, the government suggests, because the boat show in Barcelona hasn’t, in its words, “worked”. It’s taken a long time to figure this out, if it is the case. 50 years to be precise.

It may be legitimate to question the benefits of the boat show in direct economic terms, but in a wider sense, that of the kudos that comes from a show and its contribution to the reputation of Mallorca’s nautical industry and nautical tourism, one has to wonder whether the government’s attitude isn’t somewhat short-sighted.

Then there are the musicians. Eleven music associations and groups, some of them familiar names at fiesta times and on other occasions, have lobbied the Council of Mallorca over cuts to financial assistance. The Council’s now administration has said that the cuts are all the fault of the previous administration and that it will bring back the funding for traditional Mallorcan music performers in 2012 without, however, being specific. Given the parlous state of the Council’s finances, it is probably wise not to commit to anything.

With the musicians, it is a case not of jobs but of the contribution to local culture which, by extension, means or should mean tourism. It is rather more nebulous than the audiovisual and nautical industries, but an economic case for the musicians can just about be made. As part of the, if you like, “fiesta industry”, which faces even more cuts next year, there is a concern that an erosion of the fiestas may just have a negative impact on tourism.

There is financial support for the musicians from non-governmental sources, as there is finance and sponsorship available for fairs, plus the private sector to fund the audiovisual industry, but this funding isn’t infinite. Understandable it is that the government is seeking cuts where cuts can be made, but it runs a risk of abrogating responsibilities for industries it would wish to develop and for culture it should be supporting.

There again, maybe this is all just a case of realism finally taking hold, a recognition that money, for all sorts of things, was handed out almost willy-nilly without questions being asked as to whether it was wise or not and without any real control. Possibly so. But on one day last week, you had the impression of the seemingly diverse but ultimately interdependent industry and culture of Mallorca, which in turn feed into tourism, just grinding to a halt. Cuts yes, but you can only cut so deep before the bleeding becomes terminal.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

The Sun Always Shines On TV

“Summer arrives.” And every evening from Monday to Thursday, the Mallorcan summer and everything that is happening during it is presented by Maria Salas. The sun always shines on TV Mallorca. Until it no longer shines.

It might as well in fact rain until September, when TV Mallorca’s harvest moon may terminally wane and when the sun will no longer shine. Where once was Maria and her sunny days of a Mallorcan summer will be a blank screen of an endless Mallorcan winter.

Presidents Bauzà and Salom have decided to reach for the off switch: the permanent off switch for the channel. The closure of TV Mallorca is far from unexpected; it’s just a question as to when it closes. It has been leeching money and its purpose has been questionable throughout its four years of existence.

There have been suggestions that it could be absorbed into the other Mallorcan television channel, IB3, or that it could become a second IB3 channel – IB3-2 presumably – but neither suggestion has found favour with the hatchet wielders at the regional government and Council of Mallorca.

The decision to close TV Mallorca and to send in a lawyer as its new director-general to oversee its closure has brought forward protests. Two hundred demonstrated in the Plaza España. One might be tempted to suggest that this was the sum of its audience, but that would be unfair. Its now ex-director-general said earlier this year that the channel was watched by 77,000 people on the island, without detailing for how long they watch or how often.

All manner of groups have leapt to the defence of TV Mallorca. They read like a list of the usual suspects on the left: the Obra Cultural Balear (OCB); the Esquerra Unida (the united left); the ecology warriors of GOB (quite what this has to do with them is not clear); PSOE (Francina Armengol, the former president of the Council of Mallorca, calling the closure decision a “political, social and economic error”); the Mallorcan socialist party; and something called the Association of the Memory of Mallorca.

Amidst this little lot there is the unmistakable sound of a political point being made, one that comes back to the Catalan question, though this does rather overlook the fact that IB3 is also a Catalan station.

Questionable though the necessity for TV Mallorca is, the economic error that Armengol has referred to deserves some consideration. In addition to the loss of some one hundred or so jobs, the station costs far less to run than IB3 (its annual budget of 10.5 million euros is a sixth of that of the other station). But as important is the effect that the closure will have on the channel’s suppliers (and it should be noted that it is both a television and a radio station).

Some 2,000 employees of these suppliers – production companies and audio-visual equipment providers – are said to be likely to be affected by closing down TV Mallorca. This may not mean that they lose their jobs or that the suppliers themselves have to close, but the loss of the station is clearly not good news for them. Moreover, these suppliers have grown up on the back of both IB3 and TV Mallorca in creating an industrial cluster that shouldn’t be underestimated in terms of its significance.

The ParcBit technology park in Palma is home to a number of these audio-visual companies, and the technology park is foremost in being the impulse behind what innovation, development and economic diversification there is in Mallorca. TV Mallorca’s role in adding to this impulse may be being overstated but it is nevertheless important. It would be interesting to learn what Josep Aguiló, the regional government’s vice-president, makes of the potentially negative impact of shutting TV Mallorca down. With his finance hat on, he would probably argue that it was unavoidable, but he is also in charge of business, employment and industry; the super-ministries that Bauzá has created have the potential to raise conflicts of interest, and Aguiló’s has the most potential conflicts.

Even if it is and remains a minority-interest channel, TV Mallorca has a role that is wider than simply being a broadcaster. The government’s desire to cut costs is understandable enough, but Armengol is almost certainly right when she refers to the error being made. Unfortunately, the discourse regarding the closure has become a political one, with the inevitable (and not wholly justifiable) hints, evidenced by the support of the likes of the OCB and GOB, that TV Mallorca is a victim of alleged PP anti-Catalanism and anti-regionalism.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.