PRESS RELEASE
PMA welcomes 3Cat to its growing alliance
15 November 2024
The Catalan public service broadcaster joins the Public Media Alliance.
The Public Media Alliance is delighted to welcome 3Cat as the latest public service media (PSM) organisation to join its growing alliance.
The Catalan Corporation for Audiovisual Media, otherwise known as 3Cat, was established in 1983, with the mission of providing Catalan audiences with a quality public service audiovisual offering, adhering to democratic principles.
The Public Media Alliance is a global association of public service media organisations, with a role to support its members, foster international exchange and collaboration, and promote PSM values worldwide.
The PMA team are looking forward to working with 3Cat, especially in fostering new international connections and exchanges.
Find out more about 3Cat below.
“We are very proud to join the Public Media Alliance. As public media, we are very aware of the responsibility we have towards our citizens. Informing, entertaining and educating with a criteria of truthfulness, rigour and always with a vocation of public service is our purpose. We are very pleased to be able to share all these values with leading European and global public media.”
– Rosa Romá, President of 3Cat
“Public service media have a crucial role to play, not only in being a source of impartial and trusted news and information, but also in preserving and promoting distinct languages and cultures. I’m therefore very proud to welcome 3Cat to our alliance and I thoroughly look forward to both working with, and learning from, this important public media organisation. I thank them for their endorsement of our work to promote and support public service media worldwide.”
– Kristian Porter, CEO of PMA
About 3Cat
3Cat was founded as a television and radio station, with the first radio broadcast taking place in June 1983 and regular TV programming starting in 1984. Its website was founded in 1996 and an OTT platform in 2023.
It operates six distinct television channels including a 24-hour news channel, a sports channel, and a children’s channel. It also runs four different radio stations: a generalist station, a news station, a youth-content station and a classical music station. There’s also a digital-only station with some specialist content.
3Cat is the parent company which oversees the distinct radio, TV and online operations. 3Cat is run by a Governing Council, led by a President, underneath which sits a Content and Programming Advisory Board. A Management Committee forms the executive group, which is made up of the President, the three separate directors for each of the radio, TV and digital services, and other corporate directors.
The broadcaster is funded directly through the budget of the Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalan Government) and some advertising income.
One of 3Cat’s most significant roles is to promote Catalan culture and language in the region, as well as across Spain and abroad. According to its mission, “helping the consolidation and expansion of the language, culture, identity and international projection of Catalonia, reflecting the diversity of our current society, is one of the main objectives of 3Cat.”
More recently, 3Cat is working on a project for next year to unify the branding of television, radio and digital news content. In the longer term, a significant project which will see the TV, radio and digital newsrooms merge into one entity.
Ratings and international connections
TV3, the generalist television channel of 3Cat, has been the audience leader for more than 14 years in Catalonia, while Catalunya Radio is the channel with the second highest audience in Catalonia, with its radio departments leading in audience figures and the production of podcasts in the Catalan language.
International cooperation is a focus for 3Cat, which is open to the possibility of co-producing content with other public media companies and partnering on common projects.
3Cat is an active member of Circom, and will organise its annual Gala in Barcelona in 2025.
Catalunya Musica, the classical music station of Catalunya radio, is a member of the EBU classical music committee. 3Cat also maintains a close collaboration with the EBU.