Web platforms as repositories of audiovisual memory: the opportunities and pitfalls for accessing televisual heritage in Colombia

The televisual history of Colombian public television remains unevenly accessible due to financial and technological barriers in formal governmental archiving, forcing interested parties to rely on YouTube as a de-facto archive. This paper assesses the limitations of existing public platforms and regional broadcasters’ websites as official sources of audiovisual memory. Using the series Dejémonos de Vainas (1984–1998) as a case study, we critically explore YouTube's role, noting issues with copyright and insufficient metadata, while highlighting its potential for analyzing audience consumption via commentary. To combat metadata scarcity, a pilot application using a Large Language Model (LLM) demonstrated its efficiency in reconstructing the 1980s programming grid and incorporating rich metadata, such as production credits and contemporary commentary. We conclude by emphasizing the challenge posed by the dearth of proper metadata and limited archive access, underscoring the opportunity for creative digital methods and LLMs to reconstruct and ensure access to the Colombian audiovisual archive.