TELESUR MARCHES FORWARD

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CARACAS 003584

SIPDIS

FOR PAO

STATE FOR WHA/PDA CONNERS/LEBENS, WHA/AND MCISSAC/CUE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/24/2015
TAGS: KPAO OPRC PGOV PREL VE
SUBJECT: TELESUR MARCHES FORWARD


Classified By: PAO SALOME HERNANDEZ FOR 1.4 (D)


1. (C) Summary: On October 31, 2005 the Venezuelan Government
supported international, cable channel TELESUR began
broadcasting 24 hours a day. PD officer conversations with
both the President and Director General of TELESUR reveal
that they remain concerned with financial and programming
issues. However, they have made substantial progress,
especially in their news programming. TELESUR has opened
various news offices throughout the hemisphere and are
receiving reports from stringers in countries without TELESUR
offices. Next year,s budget is 10 million dollars,
virtually all coming from the Venezuelan government, but
Director General Aram Aharonian told a PD officer that he
expects to supplement with sponsorship of
programming from private and parastatal companies,
principally from the oil sector. He said an American oil
company has pledged to sponsor TELESUR programming. Support
will be necessary if TELESUR is to continue its aggressive
expansion. Despite attempts to paint TELESUR as a private
international consortium, there is no doubt that the
Venezuelan Government calls the shots. End summary.

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TELESUR GOES FULL TIME
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2. (U) After months of missed deadlines, Venezuelan
sponsored,
Chavez inspired, international satellite channel TELESUR
has begun broadcasting on a 24 hour a day basis. From July
until the end of October TELESUR broadcast 4 to 8 hour
blocs of programming that were repeated endlessly. The
programming was generally insipid, documentaries and news
programs that consisted of unconnected reports placed on
the air at various hours. Since the beginning of 24 hour
programming on October 31, TELESUR has shown a qualitative
improvement. This is most evident in their daily news
programs. They now use a standard format with professional
news anchors; utilizing reports from offices and stringers
around the hemisphere. The technical and production quality
of the reports is generally good, equal to most Venezuelan
private television news. The ideological tilt is evident:
leftist,
anti-American, and pro-Chavez. There are solid indications
of who is really paying the bills. Nonetheless, in September
TELESUR,s President, former Venezuelan Information Minister
Andres Izarra laughed as he told PD officers that TELESUR
would
never carry &Alo Presidente8 except maybe clips on their
news programs. While TELESUR has not shown Chavez,s
hours-long Sunday television monologue in its entirety, they
have shown long
segments live. TELESUR,s first major interview was an
hour-long exclusive with President Chavez on November 2,

2005.


3. (U) TELESUR has been very busy setting up offices
throughout
the hemisphere, including Washington, D.C., where they are
renting space in the AP office building. They also have
offices in Brasilia, Bogota, Buenos Aires, Havana and
Montevideo. Stringers report regularly from places such as
Haiti. An office in Mexico City is planned to open soon.
Officials have told us they would like to open offices in
Los Angeles and somewhere in Central America. While the
number of overseas news offices has expanded rapidly,
reports from other posts indicate that there are few cable,
satellite or local television stations using TELESUR.

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COSTS
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4. (C) There are substantial costs in operating a satellite
television channel. Post has documentation showing that
TELESUR spent 3 million dollars in initial equipment
purchases alone. They pay for subscriber services with
Reuters and AP television. They have constructed new studios
for their news operations. They have bought a package of
Spanish movies. They have opened up at least five overseas
offices and have definite plans for opening more in the near
future. They
are maintaining local and foreign staff and are contracting
with stringers. They have to pay satellite time 24 hours a
day on New Sky Satellite 806 (NSS 806). In regards to the
latter, Aharonian claims to be getting a special deal, paying
only 11,000 dollars a month in satellite costs. If true,
this would be a major savings for their operations. However,
a private television media executive scoffs at that claim.
He also doubts that TELESUR can be maintained on annual
budget of 10 million dollars. Aharonian disregarded the
recently announced purchase of Chinese satellite by the GOV,
which is intended to be used by TELESUR, among other things.
He called it a &cuento chino,8 a tall tale. At best use of
this satellite would be three years in the future, but he
doubted it would get up at all. Andres Izarra told PD
officers that there were no plans for Radio Sur at this point
because of the difficulty they were having organizing and
paying for TELESUR.
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WHO WILL PAY THE PIPER?
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5. (C) The initial start up capital for TELESUR was 10-12
million
dollars. Aharonian told PD officer that next year,s budget
is 10 million dollars. In comparison, NEA experts report
that the annual budget for the money-losing Al Jazeera is 60
million dollars a year. Aharonian expects to soon get
private sponsorship of TELESUR programming. He mentioned the
obvious, Venezuelan parastatal oil company PDVSA, foreign car
and construction companies, Brazilian parastatal oil company,
Petrobras, and foreign oil companies, including a U.S. oil
company. He is confident that these sponsorship deals will
be signed in the near future. Despite proclamations by the
Venezuelan government that TELESUR is an independent
multi-national operation, it is clear that all the financing
to date is from the Venezuelan government. Aharonian
indirectly admitted
This to a PD officer. He expressed his hope that TELESUR
financing would have been on the agenda of Presidents Chavez
and Kirchner during their November 20-21 meeting in
Venezuela.

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IT IS AL CHAVEEZERA
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6. (C) The Venezuelan government is paying the bills. When
Chavez wants to go international, his face goes on TELESUR.
Their new studios and headquarters were built on the grounds
of
VTV, the government owned Venezuelan television station.
Aharonian claims they never see each other. Ironically,
TELESUR is currently available on Venezuela only on direct
satellite TV and cable. Queried on rumors that TELESUR
planned to buy a local Venezuelan television channel,
Aharonian denied it. He said that if TELESUR bought the
channel they would be forced to obey Venezuela,s draconian
media law, which would be impossible for his operation.



7. (C) Comment: Various TELESUR officials have talked to us
about their financial difficulties. A 10 million dollar
annual
budget does not seem adequate for an operation of this scope.
Aharonian is a notoriously slippery character and may not
have told the whole truth when he announced their budget as
10 million dollars. It is likely that whatever their budget
is they will need more. Aharonian has talked of corporate
sponsorship since he was named Director General. Squeezing
oil companies, both state owned and foreign, for money to
sponsor TELESUR seems the logical way to go, and a maneuver
difficult to resist for oil companies wanting to operate in
Venezuela. Having opened a number of overseas offices in the
last few months and having gone to 24 hour a day
broadcasting, TELESUR will probably open a few more offices
then consolidate for a while as it works out its financial
problems.

Whitaker
Whitaker