The Group

The Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals - 3Cat is a public organisation that manages the audiovisual media of the Generalitat de Catalunya and the Grup d'Emissores de Catalunya Ràdio, in addition to the digital contents created by these media sources. It does this in compliance with its mission to act as a public service and with a firm commitment to quality, independence and the promotion of Catalan language and culture. It also forms part of the Fundació La Marató de 3Cat, which promotes social awareness and scientific research.

3Cat has 30% shareholdings in the Catalan News Agency (ACN), a public-listed company, which manages services and activities in written, radio and television communication formats at a local and county level in Catalan-speaking areas and throughout Spain.

The Corporació has been a member of FORTA (the Federation of Autonomous Area Radio and Television Organisations) since its founding, in April 1989. This body brings together radio and television companies from autonomous regions in order to aid cooperation in the areas of intellectual property rights, broadcasting, the interchange of programmes and services and participation in international organisations.

It forms part of the UER-EBU (the European Broadcasting Union) through Catalunya Música, which takes part in this organisation's musical exchange, Euroradio, which brings together all the public bodies and the main private European radio and television companies.

It is also associated with CIRCOM Regional, which brings together 376 public television stations in 38 European countries with the aim of promoting and developing cooperation between its members, co-producing and exchanging audiovisual content and training journalists and technicians.

Sala de realització de TV3

TV3

Televisió de Catalunya (TVC) was founded in 1983 with the mission of restoring the Catalan language and culture to their rightful place. Today it is Catalonia's main communication medium and the TV network that is most watched by the country's citizens.

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TVC follows the model adopted by public broadcasting corporations elsewhere in Europe and its programming is firmly committed to social and democratic values, pluralism, and public service. TVC mirrors the diversity and special traits of Catalan society, but it is also open to the wider world. It seeks quality and innovation and strongly differentiates its output from that of other networks. At the same time, it does everything to ensure that its programs reach as many viewers as possible. Over the years, the network has won widespread international recognition for the quality of its programs.

TVC is located in Sant Joan Despí near Barcelona on a 4.5 hectare site. There are four main buildings with a total floor area of 35,000 m2. TVC is a large producer of TV content. Its in-house production covers a wide range of genres (news programs, documentaries, sports programs, fiction, entertainment, etc.). But TVC also co-produces with private companies and has contributed to creating a thriving audiovisual industry in Catalonia.

Funding for the network is mixed. A “Contract Program” with the Catalan government periodically establishes the amount of public funding for the network based on the various public service functions by TVC.

TVC is also pioneering interactive applications that allow viewers to access a wide range of complementary services.

Right from the start, TVC has committed itself to being present on the web. Manages the various portals and web sites, which have become a great favorite with users seeking information in Catalan on the Internet and since December 2004, through the web tv3.cat, viewers can access TV3alacarta, a service enabling the user to watch at any time on site all the programmes with Internet rights of broadcasting, as well as all live programmes with rights held by all of Televisió de Catalunya channels, namely TV3, 33, 3/24, Esport3, SX3 i TV3HD. The programmes are sent over broadband connection links (ADSL and cable). This service overcomes geographical barriers giving viewers a new way of watching television from anywhere in the world and at any time of the day.

Estudi de Catalunya Ràdio

Catalunya Ràdio

Catalunya Ràdio was founded on June 20, 1983 to promote the use and knowledge of the Catalan language and its culture, in accordance with the principles of the Spanish Constitution and the Catalan Autonomy Statute of 1979.

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Over the years Catalunya Ràdio has grown to include four stations. The first generalist station, Catalunya Ràdio, gave the group its name; Catalunya Informació is the round-the-clock news station; Catalunya Música is devoted to classical and contemporary music; and iCat, the musical and cultural channel. Though the programming of the four stations is different, they all broadcast entirely in Catalan and enshrine high standards of quality.

Catalunya Ràdio, the national radio broadcaster of Catalonia, covers the whole of Catalonia. It is a pioneer in state-of-the-art technology and in the creation of specialized stations and is firmly committed to quality in content and public service information.

Il·lustració ordinador, tauleta, mòbil, ordinador portàtil i micròfon al voltant d'un cercle

The Ombudsman of the Audience

The Ombudsman or Ombudswoman is the institution that watches over the rights of the spectators of Televisió de Catalunya, the listeners of the radio stations of Catalunya Ràdio, and the users of the Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals - 3Cat's websites and portals.

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The Ombudsman or Ombudswoman heads the Audience Enquiries, a service that receives queries and suggestions; researches claims about the veracity, the rigour, the plurality and the balance of programmes; and invites professionals of communication and the audience to an exercise of reflection on the public service nature of the communication media.

It is the expression of an exigency towards, and the commitment to, the defence and the exercise of the rights of the citizens on the part of the Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals - 3Cat.

This figure was created in October 2008. Currently, the Ombudswoman is Laura Baladas Ortiz.

Pla general del plató de La Marató amb el marcador de fons

The TV3 Marathon Foundation

TV3's La Marató Foundation was set up in 1996 by the Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals - 3Cat with the mission of encouraging and promoting biomedical research of excellence, as well as the social awareness-raising about the illnesses featured in the La Marató de 3Cat TV programme, created in 1992, through campaigns of citizen participation and action involving dissemination and education.

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Vision

The Foundation works with the following vision in mind:

  • To excel in its management, in so far as it is the receiver and manager of the monies that essentially proceed from the solidarity contributions that citizens make to TVC through the La Marató programme.
  • To become the main link between citizens and La Marató. Thus, it will work especially in order to obtain the participation of the greater number of educational and civic centres in awareness-raising and dissemination campaigns.
  • To select the best biomedical research projects in each call for projects, and to monitor them closely throughout their duration, controlling expenses and scientific development, while informing the citizenship of the results of the work.
  • To keep all activities organised around La Marató at zero cost, and to ensure that all expenses inherent to the Foundation do not entail a burden on the donations. With this intention in mind, it will manage the resources with care, seeking the highest financial yield, providing for the absolute security of the monies, which shall allow meeting all expenses. Moreover, it shall make all the efforts so that the business fabric of Catalonia may build links with La Marató, with the intention of strengthening its social support and increase its resources, the overall aim of it all being that the full amount of all donations may be destined to foundational ends.

Values

The Foundation is part of a public entity, namely 3Cat. Consequently, it undertakes as its own the values that make it up. Moreover, the Foundation's own values include: the resolve to serve the community; the objectivity in all its decisions and activities; the efficiency in the fulfilment of its tasks; and generally the transparency in all the activities it runs, specially with regard to the administration and allocation of resources. All professionals working at the Foundation shall abide by these values and hold them as points of reference so that the trust of citizens, companies and entities it relates to, and works with, is upheld.

Since 1992, La Marató on TV3 has raised nearly 131 million euros and has funded a total of 636 biomedical research projects of excellence, carried out in various Catalan and international health centres and universities. More than 4,000 researchers have directly benefited from the financial support of La Marató. The funds are managed with complete rigour, transparency and responsibility so that the Fundació La Marató de 3Cat stimulates the scientific and economic activity of the country, promoting new research and fostering the creation and consolidation of research teams. From the careful selection of research to the explanation of their results, the foundation coordinates a complex cycle that has a positive impact on the health of citizens.

The Foundation channels the funds raised and informs with transparency of their destination. In this respect, after the selection process, the research projects chosen are subject to close economic and scientific monitoring, in this case by the Agency of Assessment of Medical Technology and Research, of the Catalan Ministry of Health.

Since 1992, the programme has focused on the fight against a number of diseases: Leukaemia (1992), Down's Syndrome (1993), Cancer (1994), Cardiovascular Illnesses (1995), Neurological Illnesses (1996), Genetic Hereditary Illnesses (1997), Diabetes (1998), Transplants (1999), Mental Illnesses (2000), AIDS (2001), Chronic Inflammatory Illnesses (2002), Chronic Respiratory Illnesses (2003), Cancer (2004), Neurological Illnesses (2005), Chronic Pain (2006), Cardiovascular Illnesses (2007), Serious Mental Illnesses (2008), Rare Illnesses (2009), Acquired Spinal Cord and Brain Injuries (2010), Regeneration and transplantation of organs and tissues (2011), Cancer (2012) and Neurodegenerative diseases (2013).

Government Bodies

The Board of Trustees is the body of government, representation, administration and decision of the Foundation. Its President is the President of 3Cat.

The following are its fixed members: 3Cat, who appoints three representatives, one of whom will be the President – previously it had been the Director General –; Televisió de Catalunya, who will appoint two representatives, one of whom will be the Director; and the Director of Catalunya Ràdio.

The following also form part of the Board: a representative appointed by the Catalan Ministry of Health; a representative from the Catalan Ministry of Innovation, Universities and Enterprise; and a representative from the Catalan Ministry of Governance and Public Administration.

Among the functions reserved to the Board of Trustees, one is to choose the theme of the La Marató de 3Cat programme, once it has studied the proposal made to it by the Scientific Assessment Committee; and another is to approve the destination of the resources for the projects deemed worthy of funding.

The Scientific Assessment Committee is made up of representatives from the leading scientific and medical institutions of Catalonia. They shall meet periodically when convened by their co-ordinator, who is the representative from the Catalan Ministry of Health and the second Vice President of the Board of Trustees.

Among their functions, one should be singled out – that of making a proposal to the Board of Trustees about the theme of the La Marató de 3Cat programme; moreover, it must approve the bases of the public competition for the presentation of projects and raise to the Board of Trustees the proposed distribution of resources.

The executive director executes and carries out the agreements adopted by the Board of Trustees, to which he raises proposals of action.