The new Canal Cultura, which opens on the 2nd of January, will be Metropolitana’s partner in the year in which the institution celebrates its thirtieth anniversary. The two people in charge believe that this “happy meeting” is a way of valuing even more the Portuguese cultural heritage.
The objective of Canal Cultura, a non-linear television platform, which can be seen on the Internet and which will broadcast live concerts, festivals, plays and other artistic performances, is to give a stage to the protagonists of the various areas of culture in Portugal.
The New Year’s Concert that the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra will give on the 2nd of January, at 17h00, at the Forum Municipal Luísa Todi, in Setúbal, marks the beginning of the new channel and of this partnership with Metropolitana, which its executive director believes can become “a happy meeting” and “a way of giving even more importance to the work that has been done”.
“All the support that culture can have is crucial and the birth of a channel 100% dedicated to this area is always good news”, begins Miguel Honrado, for whom “this partnership is very relevant for Metropolitana, especially in a year like this one when we are celebrating the 30th anniversary of the institution”.
“On one hand, Metropolitana, which has three schools and a professional orchestra produces many artistic events and contributes to the cultural development of the country, being a good source of contents for Canal Cultura. On the other hand, the existence of a specialised channel, with a demanding audience, used to watching shows, we believe, may be important for us, putting our artistic activity in contact with more spectators. And that is always relevant for artistic creation”, underlines Metropolitana’s Executive Director, who wishes “all the team of the new channel the best of luck”.
For Paulo Lavadinho, former journalist from Portuguese Radio and Television , founder and director of the new channel, this is “a partnership of enormous prestige that honours Canal Cultura”. “It has been 30 years of a great Portuguese orchestra, with a remarkable work in the dissemination of erudite music, taking it to huge music halls and to thousands, today perhaps even millions of spectators”, says the responsible, who considers that “Portugal and the Portuguese should be grateful, but above all proud, for this longevity and artistic quality of Metropolitana”.
Pointing out that Canal Cultura will do everything to “be worthy of the trust invested in it”, Paulo Lavadinho believes that the new channel will “change everything” in the Portuguese audiovisual panorama. “The differentiation of contents will be the great dominant note. There are 12 Playlists with Music, both classical and non-classical, immense talents of Portuguese and European culture, Theatre, Design, Heritage, Architecture, Urban Art, Children’s Culture, Short Films and much more! Content that you won’t find anywhere else”.
The Canal Cultura will feature OTT (Over The Top) technology used to broadcast television over the Internet and a Video On Demand (VOD) system. “The state-of-the-art technology that we are going to use will allow us to watch the contents wherever we want, on the device we choose, Smart TV included, and at the time each one defines. Culture in Portuguese will finally reach the entire planet where there is an Internet signal”, describes the responsible. Therefore, Paulo Lavadinho has no doubts: “It’s an authentic revolution never before seen in the Portuguese audiovisual sector”.