Eusko Irrati Telebista (EITB). Análisis de la Convergencia del Grupo Público Vasco

Abstract

This paper deals with methodological aspects and thematic variables of a case study analysing the process of media convergence. The case study concer ns the EITB Public Communications Group, the communications group of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, created in 1982 by the Parliament of that Community. Both in the aspect of management (Silver Q prize of the European Foundation for Qualit y Management, 2008) and in that of funding (First EITB - Basque Government Contract Program, 2002), it is a pioneering group in the field of public media groups in Spain. However, we cannot yet reach any definitive conclusions with respect to the process begun by the Group ten years ago both at the level of technological renovation, with the move from analogue to digital production and broadcasting, and with respect to the integration and creation of synergies amongst the media that make up the group (television, radio and internet) in order to unify different information processes that had previously been dealt with by each medium in isolation. The principal aim of this text is therefore to produce a snapshot of the level of integration and convergence achieved by the three media of the EITB Public Communications Group. Taking the methodological tools of earlier research in Spanish private media as a basis, the authors propose specific paths of analysis for the EITB Public Communications Group. The year 2007 is considered to be key for an integral understanding of the process. In autumn that year, EITB inaugurated its new head office in Bilbao, to which ETB (TV), RADIO EUSKADI (radio) and EITBNET (internet) were all transferred, occupying a common shared space. With respect to the paper we are presenting, we are especially interested in describing the present physical location of the editors of the three media in a single space, a single newsroom. Euskadi Irratia, the Basque language radio station that has its head office in Donostia/San Sebastián, and Radio Vitoria remain outside this common space. The research that the group of lecturers from the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) is carrying out (EHU08/57) aims to situate the level of convergence achieved by the EITB Group and to answer the question of whether the integration of the offices and newsrooms of the media entails integration in the production and distribution of content, and whether the convergence process undertaken entails the utilisation, by the editors of the three media, of tools for creating and publishing crossmedia content.