Televisió de Catalunya (Catalan pronunciation: [tələβiziˈo ðə kətəˈluɲə], known by the acronym TVC) is the public broadcasting network of Catalonia, one of the seventeen autonomous communities of Spain.
Slightly more than half of its revenue (52%) comes from public funding through the Generalitat de Catalunya, while the remaining 48% is raised through advertising, sponsorship and merchandise and original productions' sales.
However, sometimes an audio narration track for blind and visually impaired viewers is also provided.
In 1988, TV3 started a decentralization process, first broadcasting programmes in the Aranese language for the Aran Valley and, one year later, opening branch offices in Tarragona, Girona and Lleida and creating the Telenoticies Comarques, a regional news programme broadcast simultaneously in four different editions, one for each of the four Catalan provinces.
[3] Televisió de Catalunya's terrestrial channels are available in Catalonia, its home region.
[4] Since 1985 and until 2011, TVC's channels were also available in the Valencian Community thanks to transmitters run by volunteers from Acció Cultural del País Valencià.
A generalist channel, it broadcasts news and entertainment programmes, as well as fiction series and movies.
Originally called Canal 33, in 2003 it underwent a restructuring that split it into two channels that shared the same frequency: 33 and K3.
[2] While this is still true for analogical broadcasting, since December 2006, 33 has a channel of its own in digital terrestrial television.