The UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (CDCE) argues that cultural diversity is one of the main engines of sustainable development. Based on the assumption that all cultural expressions deserve the same dignity and respect, this international agreement urges countries to create a favourable environment for individuals and social groups in their respective territories to be able to create, produce, disseminate and distribute cultural expressions of their own, as well as have access to a range of cultural expressions originating from their own territories and the rest of the countries in the world.

One decade after the approval of the Convention there are numerous initiatives in place to support its goals in the field of culture and communication (UNESCO 2012 and 2013; Albornoz & García Leiva 2017; Gallego 2017). A case in point is the Audio-visual Technology Hub Programme (Programa Polos Audiovisuales Tecnológicos, PPAT) implemented in Argentina2 between 2011 and 2015, with the aim to revert the historically high geographic concentration of TV content production in the city of Buenos Aires. One of the consequences of such concentration is that the diversity of cultural practices originating in different regions of the country are seldom seen on the screen. Thus, sixty percent of the hours of free-to-air TV programming in the provinces during 2011 were live or deferred retransmissions of contents generated by metropolitan stations (AFSCA 2012). In response to this situation, and in a context of changing audio-visual public policies and terrestrial digital television deployment (Albornoz & García Leiva 2012; Krakowiak et al. 2012; Mastrini et al. 2012; Becerra et al. 2012), the former administration of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who served two terms (2007-2011 and 2011-2015), supported the PPAT in order to activate TV production in the various provinces and regions of Argentina. To accomplish that goal, the national territory was divided into nine audio-visual technology hubs, where national public universities acted as centres that gathered a range of regional stakeholders.

The purpose of the present case-study is to analyse this effort to decentralize TV production, embodied in the PPAT. The research techniques that support this study include documentary review, search and analysis of indicators, and in-depth interviews with key players: PPAT managers, audio-visual producers and researchers. This chapter provides an overview of the context of PPAT implementation and the program's goals, organizational structure, focus areas and funding. It then goes on to describe the phases of the Content Production focus area between 2011 and 2015, and discusses the diversity of sources and TV genres / subgenres, considering the 18 TV seasons that were aired between 2013 and 2014. The following sections address the dissemination of the Programme and the limited commercialization of the 18 projects produced. The case-study closes with a brief set of conclusions about this initiative.