Catalonia: EBU rejects CCMA’s application for full membership

The European Broadcasting Union has rejected Catalan Broadcasting Corporation’s (CCMA) application for becoming a full member of the association .

Claire Rainford, Head of the EBU / EBU Communication Department, said that the request from the Catalan Broadcasting Corporation (CCMA) was rejected by the EBU / EBU Executive Board as the corporation does not meet the criteria of the international association. Precisely he stated:

The EBU / EBU does not have, nor has it ever had, any regional station of a member state of the International Telecommunication Union or the Council of Europe as an independent member. EBU / EBU statutes do not offer this possibility” .

On the other hand, the EBU clarified the situation of the United Kingdom in Eurovision competitions, as the CCMA candidacy was based on this case: “The United Kingdom is a unitary state made up of four constituent nations, not regions or autonomous communities as In addition, the United Kingdom envisages that the territories participate separately in sporting events “.

The Story so far

Related image In recent months, the Catalan Parliament has approved a measure for the regional broadcaster Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuais (CCMA) to move forward with the application for full membership of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU / EBU). The measure was approved with 75 votes in favor and 56 against, as well as 4 abstentions, and a follow-up vote also approved to allow Catalonia to participate in the Eurovision Festival independently, with the vote in favor seeing the agreement of 69 deputies and the vote against 60 as well as 6 abstentions.

The Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuais is constituted by Televisió de Catalunya, formed by seven channels including TV3, and Catalunya Ràdio, formed by four radio stations. The CCMA expected to be approved as an active member of the body in 2020 after the application was submitted in 2019.

Catalonia and Eurovision

Tv3 which is part of CCMA has prior experience in the Eurovision Song Contest as it had collaborated with the Andorran national broadcaster, RTVA, in 2004. RTVA cooperated with TV3 in order to produce the national selection process of the Eurovision Song Contest. According to overall researches the contest in 2018 saw an audience of 1 million people wathcing the show in the Catalan region.

source: ESC Portugal