Logo of the defunct 8tv network.
The 8TV screen went black this Tuesday. It discontinued its programs, which were now just filler (outdated films and rebroadcasts of its programs). The bankruptcy administrator ordered the closure of the DTT channel in September to stop the accumulation of losses, but the Generalitat postponed this. However, on October 4, the Consell de l’Audiovisual de Catalunya (CAC) announced the start of an administrative procedure to terminate the exploitation license.
EDICA, whose visible figure is businessman Nicola Pedrazzoli, operated two of the four channels of the multiplex cinema whose license it held. He did it with 8TV and Verdi Clàssics. The other two were leased to Fibracat and BarçaTV. The fact that both customers stopped broadcasting in January and July of this year meant a loss of income for EDICA, whose star project 8TV failed with a daily audience rating of barely more than 1%.
The story of this blatant failure of private television in Catalan began in April 2001. The Godó Group, holder of the multiplex license, launched City TV, which was renamed 8TV in 2006. Although the programs by Josep Cuní and Alfonso Arús increased viewership, they never managed to achieve attractive ratings. The channel average reached 4% at its best. The involvement of professionals from the radio station RAC1 did not work either and in 2005 Mediaset joined the project and exported a soft version of its reality show formula. The experiment lasted two seasons and from then on the station increasingly declined in terms of content.
In March 2021, businessman Nicola Pedrazzoli, who had the humble experience of Canal Català, and his partner Borja Nieto bought EDICA from the Godó Group. Information about the sale at the time put the amount paid by the buying company OC 2022 SL at 10 million euros. The new 8TV was born with the bold idea of eclipsing TV3, to which it aimed its ambitious advertising messages. And in fact he signed some of the most important professionals during the most passionate period of TV3’s independence movement, such as Pilar Rahola and the channel’s now retired director, Vicent Sanchis. The imitations were obvious. On Saturday evening, for example, the then former Junts MP Eduard Pujol hosted an interview and assembly program called Fax de 8TV, a clear reference to the defunct TV3 Saturday program FAQS.
An unfortunate consequence of the closure of 8TV is the end of the Verdi Classics broadcasts. Its existence was due to an order from the company that owned the channel license, the same company that managed 8TV, EDICA, to the distributor A Contracorriente Films, to program films. The order assumed that the distributor who operates the Verdi cinemas would receive an amount in return for providing the content. The survival of Verdi Clàssics therefore did not depend on A Contracorriente, but on EDICA, which managed the license. When EDICA lost the broadcasting license for its four stations, Verdi Clàssics stopped broadcasting. With this project, A Contracorriente Films wanted to strengthen the Verdi brand and attract a cinema audience. Adolfo Blanco, founder and top manager of the company, told this newspaper that the closure was completely beyond his control since “the person who gave the signal” was not the Verdi company.
With the closure of 8TV, a project that aimed to provide a private alternative to public television in Catalan disappears. Although there are private broadcasters at local level, the audiovisual map in Catalan is now largely in the hands of public broadcasters. Although the insignificance of 8TV does not allow us to speak of a significant decline, it does seem to highlight the difficulty of launching a large audiovisual project in Catalan in the private sector.
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