According to the Government, 180 workers at three public signals, DeporTV, Paka Paka and Encuentro, will lose their jobs, ceasing to work in 2018. The move represents a 60% reduction of the networks’ workforce, according to the Sindicato Argentino de Televisión (SATSAID).

As the workers feared that the Televisión Digital Abierta (TDA) system was about to close down, the Minister for Culture, Hernán Lombardi, explained that the entire DTT network will continue to work, but the content production unit will be drastically reduced.

“We have decided to dismantle the content production unit, formerly known as CIARA. Such an expensive structure for production, post-production, storing and broadcasting was designed in a very different context,” said Lombardi. “The dismantling of the unit is not putting the continuity of the TDA system at risk.”

Together with the TV union SATSAID and the Government, workers are currently negotiating terms of the redundancies.