Soccer is not for everyone. In the Professional League that is clear. If you want to see River, Boca, Independiente, or whoever – except for the two or three games that are free, none of the so-called “big” teams – you have to pay. In promotion football, things seem to go along a similar path, only that, in these instances, although there is no need to pay, you have to be lucky that the channel that has the transmission rights of those competitions –TyC Sports– See favorably, or be profitable, pass to your team.
TV pairs, an alternative media outlet in the city of Luján, with a reach of 11 km in all directions, made this situation visible with the teams in their area, Flandria and Luján, and found it very useful to start covering the matches of both clubs. The neighbors were the first to thank the initiative, since many times the meetings are Saturdays or weekdays during business hours and there are no chances to go to the field. For eight years they made the transmissions without problems, until in 2019 intimations began to arrive from the company sad, belonging to Clarin Group Y Tournaments and Competitions, and they had to stop broadcasting.
Lucía Maccagno, belonging to Barricada TV -the first popular channel that integrates the TDA grid- noticed this story and made the documentary On the pitch, community television, soccer and censorship, as a final thesis to graduate in the career of Social Communication, and with the aim of making visible the daily situation that self-managed media live in front of communication tanks. “The case of Pares, around soccer, seemed to me to be a paradigmatic example to make visible how companies concentrated in our country work, and as a community channel it constantly has to face these monopolies”explains the director.
TV pairs, as told in the documentary, had to stop broadcasting the matches with images due to the constant summons he received from sad. At the beginning, the signal sought protection under article 77 of the Law on Audiovisual Communication Services – The right to universal access (through audiovisual communication services) is guaranteed to news content of relevant interest and sports events, football matches or other genre or specialty-, but there was not much case to that and the letters documents multiplied. “In 2019, in a situation of constant harassment, they decided to stop because there was a risk of having an economic judgment with sad that, no matter how much pairs the right in the law assists them, if they lost it would be an economic risk that would cost them a lot to face, ”says Maccagno and expands that the fight is not only in the protection that was presented to enforce the law, There is also “a resistance that has to do more from the sectoral and political, from militancy in the street.”
Not being able to broadcast the matches with an image represents a detriment to the channel and its audience. By the side of pairs, it is a measure that affects your daily grid and the content for which they became more professional, growing in viewers and in tools to do it better; by the side of neighbors are affected by not being able to see their teams. Also, as seen in the documentary, pairs not only does it cover football activities, it also handles club social events. “That gives it an addition and a plus of content and professionalism, which has no comparison with the coverage that Trisa can do. And to that, the technical quality that they were able to acquire in all this time is also added. The product that achieves TV pairs It is a careful product due to the closeness they have with the people of that locality -says Maccagno- It is a screen very committed to the neighbor and the neighbor of Luján”.
sad is the holder of the rights, but does not pass the matches. That is to say: it does not transmit them nor does it allow them to transmit, because it understands that from the alternative channel, with a range of 11 km, which has a neighborhood antenna in the Jáuregui neighborhood, there is alleged unfair competition and that it represents a threat to its interests. “Here it is about a right of audiences to access certain content. pairs cannot transmit it because Trisa censors it, but at the same time this company does not consider it profitable to cover all the matches in the category that Flandria was in until December. The same, both in the B Nacional and in the B Metro, the situation remains the same: they cover when there is a classic or some confrontation that motivates interest in the teams that face each other, but they do not broadcast all the matches. And many do not even transmit them through the channel, but rather refer them to the platforms”, Explain.
In 2019, a “Pelotazo” was organized in front of the headquarters of the National Communications Entity (ENACOM), claiming the rights of partisan television, with article 77 of the media law as a banner and a soccer game was played in the street, under the motto “football against censorship of neighborhood clubs”. Some images of the protest appear in the documentary and the presence of Víctor Hugo Morales and Alejandro Apo stands out. “I think that TyC sports has the championship (in reference to B Nacional and B Metro) because it has nothing else. I would aspire to have European football, local first division football, which is also discredited, and not promotion. In these types of championships, where we know that there is no great economic return, I would give liberties (…) We must not cut, we must give the possibility that everyone has it, ”says Fernando Niembro in a passage from the work of Maccagno.
To this day, Pares continues to fight so that what the law says is complied with. It continues to fight to broadcast the Flandria matches again, on its return to Nacional B, without having to put a black plate in the background. “We hope that ultimately, neither more nor less, the law will be complied with. That the state enforces a law that is in force. Although Mauricio Macri, on his arrival in power, vetoed some articles, in which we take refuge in order to continue transmitting is in force. Whereby, We understand that sooner rather than later, justice should take action on the matter, observe and understand that we are in compliance with the law and that we have the right to be able to transmit and above all the audiences, to be able to access that content that otherwise they would not be able to see it”, says Alejandro Schiaffino, a member of Pares TV, about the end of the documentary.
Maccagno’s work had its official premiere at the end of 2021, within the framework of the International Documentary Festival of Argentina (DOCA), but its director is expecting to be able to do a show in Luján as soon as the National B championship begins. “My idea is to take advantage of the start of the First National championship, now that Flandria has risen again, and make a projection in Luján, if you can, and if not take advantage of that date to upload it and make it available for free to everyone who wants to see it”, he concludes.
.