“We are going to make a Eurovision of Latin America”

We’ll start with a classic question: when you go to Parliament, you get hammered by the audience. Do you think that a public television has to worry about the audience? No, I think we have taken a leap forward. The Council took office in March 2021. There was little investment in programs. And then, when investment began to be mobilized, in the last half of the previous year we increased our audience. The months of this year are very positive. The last month we are at a 9.5% share, if I’m not mistaken. There is a turning point that means we are on the right track. What happens is that we must always say that this path is slow, because the descents and the ascents are slow. But I think there are changes that have nothing to do with circumstantial issues, like football alone or Turin. In that sense, the next appearance does not scare me too much.

What balance do you make of the ‘Eurovision operation’, from the Benidorm Fest to the final in Turin? It is an operation to be placed in its context. First, we were not in the international concert, we were among the last. We had to get out of this. So the step we took at the time was to apply for a position in the EBU Executive and it shows. The second element is that we were coming out of a pandemic. It was necessary to revitalize an area very affected by the drop in tourism, such as Benidorm. We made an agreement with the Generalitat and with the Benidorm City Council. Very positive. And then you had to help music, young music. So we have to remember that she was very sacrificed with the pandemic and we renounced the rights that we always went with the record companies. We did a festival to increase the visibility of this young music. And the result has been that we have had audience success, that we have competed well in Turin and that it also marks a connection with the young audience that we did not have. I think it is significant, and we are already planning that this be redirected in the future, that there is also constant work with young people

Is the idea to expand or extend it? We don’t want to be left with the mirage of a good result, we’re going to go out and win next time. We were also there to organize it, but in the end if Ukraine resigns, it will be the BBC that organizes it and then we are going to split up. We are going to try to launch a similar festival for Latin America and compete as well as possible in the next Eurovision.

In other words, a Eurovision in Latin America as in the United States. A Eurovision of Latin America, but in another way. It is also recovering that OTI festival that was held, but in a different way. We are thinking of a very innovative way that involves social networks, that involves popular music, that enhances the ability of Latin music to be seen in the world.

Is this operation an example of public television that you would like to promote at this stage? Music is an impressive art. Popular music and classical music. The mission of public television is to empower citizens, make them more cultured. Therefore, the commitment to popular music is important. But we are going to promote the orchestra and the choir, which we want to be the emblem of our values. We are going to promote that it be decentralized, that it be connected with dissemination, that it be connected with schools, that there be an audience that is cultivated with culture, with music and this must be extended to all fields. Science is a huge gamble. Public television has to be in essential places. In essential moments can not miss. It is essential for democracy, it is essential for critical thinking. And it is also essential to sustain quality journalism. Because today journalism is suffering a lot from the business model. Verification is more difficult, employment is more precarious. Well, we have to be promoting public or private quality journalism, but helping.

In sports too? Yes. The new European Sports Directive defines it very well. Sport comes first, they are values, they are values ​​of equality, of competitiveness, they are values ​​of progress that do a good service to a healthy life, they do a good service to education and culture and then they summon the peoples at a certain moment . Peoples need to identify with something, be it at a European level, be it at a national level, be it at a state level. Identify yourself and also divert some social tensions towards the game, which is a school of life. I think that sport has to be there as a public square and we have to be paying attention to women’s sports, less famous sports, minority sports. And the bet that we are making in Radio Televisión Española is not only the football of great competition of the national teams, but in all the more or less popular federations. And now we are going to redouble our bet with Olympic sport. And there I do believe that it is important that we take a step forward.

And would you like to regain rights to major football competitions? We have focused mainly on the national teams, because the others are difficult to obtain. They unite less, because they divide in some way. But we have to be with the national team, and with Olympic sport we have to be, just as we have made a strong commitment to UEFA and the World Cup. We are also working so that, together with the European Eurovision network, we are the owners of the sports transmission rights for the Olympic Games, which until now were subsidiaries of a multinational that transcends Europe, there is a commitment to a European sports model which also happens to defend the audiovisual rights of each public television or of each. I talk a lot about audiovisual sovereignty, creative sovereignty, no, we have to defend that.

And is there enough money for this project? So far we have it. With the forecast of income that we have, it is amortized well with the expense that it supposes in the grill, it is compatible with other investments and it yields. Football is doing us very well. We have achieved peaks of 57% audience in the UEFA League final. The matches of the national team are between the 20th and the 26th. Not to mention only the sport, having achieved that the first debate in Andalusia, in which Spanish television was also often displaced, achieved a 17.8% audience is a value. It is necessary to be in the essential moments with the essential function of public television, where it corresponds.

The end of the rate for telecommunications operators, is it a threat to the financing of public television? The basic principle was that if we, as public broadcasters, give up advertising, we have to have some compensation from those who have kept the entire advertising market. This stands, at the same time that I think it is a time to say that our system is probably not bad, because, even if we lose something, because telecommunications stops financing part of it, the situation in Great Britain is more serious. There the suppression of the rate is planned in three or four years and in France it has been radical. The other day, speaking to my colleagues at the BBC and France Television, their concern was enormous. We, at least, are assured that with that rate we are going to maintain reasonable financing. We will have to adjust our framework mandate, but it gives us a forecast of sustainability that is in question in other countries. There is no democracy without public television, without public television, and it is very important that Europe continue to commit to that.

You have spoken before about the territorial strength of the group. What relevance do you give it in your mandate? We have 17 territorial centers, we have two production centers in the Canary Islands and Barcelona. We are going to create two new production centers. This means that our staff is distributed, Radio Nacional is in each province, it has journalists everywhere and they can build a shared discourse. This is very important. It is necessary to invert the traditional, old logic, that the discourse is central and that when we make local discourse, we disconnect. On the contrary, it is necessary to connect the parts, make a structuring discourse and bet on a culturally and linguistically diverse Spain. And this, which we credit with what I have said about TVE, we are going to share with an agreement with FORTA, which are public television stations, and we are also going to reach an agreement with the press, with the press that has territorial distribution and regional. We are going to work together, because we all share the democratic ideals of quality journalism. This must also be taken to the management of the company itself. We have to decentralize some services, change some routines. And we are doing it. It is a change that organizationally we completed this summer and that culturally will cost us a little more, but that will be ready within two years.

Related news

What does it consist of? Well, the change has been very strong. We have radio, television and interactive, separately. Now it is a comprehensive management. Then we had separate newsrooms and we are going to move towards progressive integration into a single platform, at the service of the entire newsroom, of the entire territory, where Radio Nacional is also being incorporated. Little by little, we are going to share all the services in the cloud. For example, now in Valencia we will build a new center. In that center we are going to do a lot of training activities of the Institute, which is going to move a good part. We are going to do the same thing in Zaragoza. We are working in the Canary Islands and we are also going to transfer production to these centers and also decide on some strategy of the corporation there.

And as for programming? In programming we are going to make a kind of important cultural leap, that is, the one that oozes culture supporting the book, the theater, the creative arts, in the 1, in the 2, in RTVE, in the digital platform, in the radio that exudes science, culture, critical sense. We are going to support the digital transformation of this country. We are going to look for talent wherever there is and we are going to create events throughout the territory. What do we do? Firm commitment to sport. We are going to create a platform where all the federations are recognized, where there is university sports, school sports, federative sports, another platform for classical music and popular music. And this will have showcases at 1. We will make a very strong commitment to popular music and cinema. We are going to promote a new audiovisual narrative, there will be no more cooperation with international services. On June 30, I signed the incorporation to the Arte en Strasbourg channel, with which we will not only be able to take advantage of all the art programming on all our channels, but also that we will create a co-production fund with them that will be important .