2024-04-11 04:56:26
The high cost to be paid to broadcast the contest, added to other expenses such as the remodeling of Quinta Vergara, caused both channels to withdraw from the process.
Mega was the only TV channel that applied to broadcast the Viña del Mar Festival between 2025 and 2028. while TVN and Canal 13 gave up participating in the bidding process carried out by the municipality.
Aboutboth Andrónico Luksic’s signal and the public station issued statements to explain the reasons for their decision, appealing mainly to the high cost they had to pay to win the contest.
From Channel 13 they explained that “the costs involved in the minimum obligations established in the bidding rules do not make it economically viable to maintain the concession.” under the technical and artistic quality standards of Channel 13, since all the scenarios studied show significant losses.”
Along with this, they questioned the powers of the municipality to terminate the Viña Festival concession, describing them as “discretionary.”
“It is seen that there is a precariousness of the concession due to its eventual early termination for discretionary reasons of the municipal authority, along with greater control of the obligations that emanate from the concession,” he indicated in a statement.
“It seems disproportionate that the concessionaire must take charge of structural works of a public asset that is Quinta Vergara, only to use the facilities for one week a year, which is when the festival takes place,” they shot.
Along these lines, they regretted that the concession only targets the transmission of the Viña Festival on open TV, accusing that “concessionaires cannot host content broadcast at the Festival on their digital platforms, unless expressly authorized by the artist. Meanwhile, the municipality maintains all the shows on its historical YouTube channel – even if there is no proper authorization for it – monetizing said content.
TVN highlights the high cost of the Festival
A similar position was shown by TVN, detailing that the high cost to keep the Viña Festival, in addition to paying for the remodeling works of Quinta Vergaramake it unfeasible to participate in the tender.
“The reference values considered for its realization represent an increase of 42% compared to the previous concession, where TVN was one of the channels that broadcast the festival in its 2019, 2020, 2023 and 2024 versions, and that despite a rigorous savings and cost containment plan generated economic losses,” argued the public channel.
TVN added that “the incorporation of new clauses and obligations that are far from the current reality of the television industryaffected in 2023 by a drop of almost $6.9 billion pesos in advertising investment (-2.8% compared to 2022), makes it unfeasible for us to present an economic offer for the broadcast of the festival.”