“Our motivation and enthusiasm was to create the top-notch infrastructure for the country and each citizen,” stated Tinatin Berdzenishvili, the Director General of GPB’s First Channel, while discussing the new building on the Business Partner program.

According to Tinatin Berdzenishvili, this building will not only accommodate radio, television, and online news services but also facilitate film production.

“The First Channel’s new building changes everything. First and foremost, I congratulate all employees of the First Channel, both old and new generations, as we have all become part of history, and I believe this new chapter has begun beautifully. We’ve heard evaluations from experts, including the international press, that this building is architecturally very distinctive. Moreover, it is highly functional. It’s adapted not just for television but is a multimedia space that, in addition to uniting radio, television, and online news services, will also support film production. It will be digitally functional. I think it not only meets all the challenges of modern media but, if I may say so, we’ve slightly surpassed our time. In the four years since we laid the capsule, we’ve incorporated absolutely every best reference from around the world. I believe this is truly one of the role models for the entire world.

Our motivation and enthusiasm were to create a top-notch infrastructure for the country and each citizen. Absolutely all work carried out in the country was through tenders announced by state procurement and then implemented. We worked with 36 local Georgian companies, which marks high professionalism and competence locally. When we hear that something is done better somewhere else – we’ve proven that we can do it just as well.

A competition was announced, and this project was publicly selected by the audience. I’d like to highlight the chief architect, Levan Siamashvili. I think he put his life’s project into this. The city has gained an architecturally sound, beautiful, ecologically green building, which we can’t help but rejoice in as a national acquisition. The company Dagi and the company Tbili Sakhli – Casa Calda constructed the building.

Engineering is of great importance; heating and cooling, which we sometimes think we can’t do, worked wonderfully. I’d also like to mention the CMC company, which conducted supervision. Fundamentally, we can do this work well, and I always emphasize that this was implemented by the public sector because, of course, the business sector has even more opportunities. For various reasons, we were limited in budget and time.

I can confidently say that significant and ambitious projects can indeed be achieved through state procurement. While it may be more challenging, it is certainly possible, as we have demonstrated.

Every detail in the building is very well thought out and calculated. The building occupies an area of 26,000 square meters, which is enormous. There’s a 1,200-square-meter studio in the building. It is not only in the region, but many European public broadcasters and private televisions don’t have such large scales. We have ambitions for film production, and Georgian cinema has always been distinguished. We very much want to contribute to this. There’s a large concert space that is technologically equipped.

I want to highlight radio because radio is the main medium and its trust is very high. The new building allows us to do what we had planned and what the audience will see better – that everything is systematically integrated, and I think this circle has closed. We love our old building very much, and it’s part of history, but it’s no longer adapted to the modern media system, meaning it can no longer respond in any way, neither infrastructurally nor technically, nor in terms of people’s arrangement. We are no longer just television; we are a media hub and media ecosystem.

The newsroom is based on the concept of a unified newsroom. We’ve already adjusted to this new behaviour, but the infrastructure didn’t allow it. This means that radio, television, and web work in a unified concept, and conditionally, three cars no longer need to go out for the coverage to tell one story. This can be done in an integrated manner. This also saves a lot of resources. To mention the economic factor, 36 companies and locally spent money is a refund, which is the main concept of public broadcasting worldwide. What we spend, we spend on the market. The same applies to production and Georgian programs.

We aim to ensure that the funds allocated to the public broadcaster stay within the country. This represents a crucial strategic decision, particularly when it comes to the products we produce.

We have long since changed and re-equipped technologically for the better, but the new building allows everything to be systematically integrated, and I think this circle has closed. We love our old building very much, and it’s part of history, but it’s no longer adapted. It can no longer respond to the modern media system, neither infrastructurally nor technically,” stated Tinatin Berdzenishvili.