US embassy cable - 05CARACAS3584

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 
-------------------------------- 
 
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