For a few years two teams of (TRACE) researchers at the University of the Basque Country (www.ehu.es/trace) and the University of León (http://trace.unileon.es/) have been carrying out research using censorship archives as the basic source of information. The main methodological framework used has been DTS. Narrative and theatre, as well as films, have been quite thoroughly catalogued and analysed for the period 1939-1985. Other related research topics (e.g., theatre broadcast on Spanish Television, TVE, 1965-1985) have recently been tackled in the Universitat Autònoma in Barcelona (Spain).
A parallel line of research started around 2004, using TRACE methodology: the study of foreign programmes translated and broadcast in Basque television channels (ETB1-Basque- & ETB2-Spanish) 1983> 2006. Work on regional television channels opens, to be sure, a new line of research that can draw on existing TRACE investigations. In actual fact, the early 1980s are key years for which we have information from sources heavily linked with Franco’s regime as well as data on audiovisual products from the new autonomous regions’ emerging television channels.
As the two main pieces of research on Basque television (Barambones and Cabanillas, http://www.ehu.es/trace/tesisytrabajos-mtracedea.html) render more information, derived from the catalogues compiled and AV products analysed, there is a stronger need for more research on foreign AV products in other Spanish regional channels (e.g., channels broadcasting in Catalan or Galician). Such research would be vital to compare parallel situations within Spain. But there would also be a European dimension that needs to be explored: the situation with regard to broadcasting in other minority languages such as Irish or Welsh. We have tentatively explored cases like TG4 or RTÉ in Ireland, in relation to Basque television, but this remains to date an open avenue for further investigations.