The year 2021 implied an immense challenge for Cuban Television: it was, to a large extent, the main cultural option for hundreds of thousands of Cubans, in a stage marked by the recess imposed by the health contingency.
Beyond the specific qualities of the programming, we must recognize the commitment of a television system that has covered a very wide thematic and generic spectrum.
Challenges persist in 2022: the first: the bill. It is about the way of making television, the technical skills and the professional capacity to deal with that technique. There is still a lot of television in Cuba with obvious problems in almost all areas: sound quality, image quality, photography, lighting, sets, graphic design, music … and that idea that the important thing is the content and that form is secondary. If the form fails, the content does not arrive as it should.
Another challenge: the sense of the show. We do not bet on pyrotechnic banality, a lot of noise and little nuts. But television has to be spectacle, and not just necessarily spectacular programs. Sense of the show in everything: from orientation shows to newscasts, including exchange programming, where there are still unmet demands.
Third challenge: articulation. Although there are undoubted advances there: a generalist channel, Cubavisión, several specialized channels. To continue looking for formulas to form the grids, understanding programming as a system. Not everything serves everyone, you have to please the majority without neglecting the minorities.
Fourth challenge: the production and financing schemes for this production. And that is an important challenge, taking into account the difficulties of the national economy. Resources are not excess, rather they are lacking, therefore you have to take advantage of what you have in the most efficient way.
Al Habla con los muertos, a sitcom for television with a script by Amilkar Salatti and directed by Alberto Luberta,
Meeting those challenges is a daunting task. Those who do television every day know it. The good news is that there are many professionals determined to make better television every day. And you can see the results, there are several interesting programs that we will comment on in this column in 2022: the telenovela You, From the studio, Danzoneando, Al talks with the dead and other unitarians and premiere teleseries. We will continue Zapping.
