Mediaset’s commitment to the company Ana Rosa Quintana has led the production company Unicorn Content to make two morning programs, the three hours of TardeAR and the two installments of Fiesta on the weekends. But except for the show presented by Enma García, the audience results so far are very discreet.
In the corridors of Mediaset there are those who accuse the network of having suffocated some of its trusted production companies to deliver the large slice of its content to two production companies: that of Ana Rosa Quintana and those of the giant Banijay, to the detriment of other production companies such as those of ‘Save me’, ‘Survivors’ and ’25 words’
But the results are worrying. Ana Terradillos In The Critical Look this Wednesday marked a worrying )%, Joaquin Prat, with Let’s see, he is not exactly the king of the mornings, and the Ana Rose marked a minimum this Wednesday despite the discreet premiere of La Plaza by Jordi González on La 1, with an interview with Terelu Campos included. But is that Sandra Barneda (Cuarzo, Banijay) is sinking the after-dinner scene with Así es la vida. Big Brother Vip (Zeppelin, also from Banijay) does not meet expectations either, with very disappointing data.
The policy of trusted production companies is faltering because the products of Unicorn Content and the different companies of Banijay add up to resounding failures, not to mention the Chinese Tales of The TV Factory that some already consider dead.
Almost two decades after Paolo Vasile was sheltered by small external companies with which Telecinco has retained talent and contained costs, the situation is alarming.
The new managers of Mediaset after the departure of the Roman decided to change the purchasing policy in Fuencarral by unequivocally betting on Unicorn Content, which is producing more than 75 hours a week for Telecinco and Cuatro.
The factory chaired by Ana Rosa Quintana has increased its production hours by 50% this season, while the giant Banijay has seen how Mediaset lifted its veto to guarantee the return of ‘GH VIP’ and the continuity of ‘Survivors’.
Ana Rosa non stop
‘The critical look’, ‘Let’s see’, ‘TardeAR’, ‘Four a day’ and ‘Fiesta’ will predictably contribute to Unicorn Content repeating as a Spanish production company with more hours released openly, just as it achieved last year campaign (according to GECA with 2,654 hours, which represents 9.1% of the total production of the indigenous industry).
The production company earned more than 29 million euros in 2022 and achieved a profit of 2.83 million euros, of which 1.5 ‘kilos’ have gone into the pockets of its shareholders, mainly Ana Rosa Quintana herself (who has pocketed 760,000 euros thanks to the fact that he owns 51% of the factory).
Unicorn Content itself recognizes in its annual accounts that its turnover is expected to increase in 2023 and 2024 thanks to Mediaset, which provides almost 80% of its turnover, Telemadrid (‘120 minutes’) and platforms such as HBO or Prime Video.
Banijay also takes sliced
Salem assured that he wanted to lift the veto against production giants like Banijay, who this summer released a collection of products for Telecinco without luck that, for the most part, ended in resounding failure: ‘The Last Night’, ‘What a Holiday’ or ‘I’m slipping’.
The summer skids have not prevented the factory from making its way into Mediaset with the return of ‘Big Brother VIP’, which is around a drop of 20 points compared to its last installment, ‘That’s Life’, which survives after dinner, or ‘There you!’, who wants to avoid the tsunami despite his barely accurate data during the summer months.
The affected producers
Mediaset España has also begun to contract with other factories, see Mediapro with ‘The musical of your life’, and this situation, together with the rain of contracts with which they have showered the feuding Unicorn Content and Banijay (which will produce a new installment of ‘Temptation Island’ and will take over the production of ‘Survivors), have knocked out several trusted production companies.
The big loser of the contract dance is undoubtedly La Fábrica de la Tele, which is praying to avoid the cancellation of ‘Chinese Tales’ and, after the disappearance of Thursday’s edition of Jorge Javier Vázquez’s program, is content with 17 hours of weekly production for Mediaset.
Gone are the times when only the ‘Sálvame’ universe brought together 35 hours in competitive slots such as the afternoon or prime time. Óscar Cornejo and Adrián Madrid, in addition to dreaming of the ‘Chinese’ miracle, settle for products in less competitive chains and bands (‘Everything is a lie’ or ‘Socialité’).
The Tele Factory touched 33 million euros in sales in 2021 and this year, if they are lucky, they will reach 20 with a forecast to fall below 15 in 2024 barring an autumn miracle of the new ‘Every man for himself’ that the former of ‘Sálvame’ will premiere in October on Netflix.
Another production company that is crestfallen in Mediaset is Bulldog TV, which was born in 2015 by two directors of Magnolia TV (Banijay) who teamed up with Paolo Vasile to produce formats such as ‘Survivientes’,
Bulldog TV touched 25 million euros in turnover in 2020, but in 2024 their turnover is likely to collapse since they have lost ‘Survivors’ (which goes to a Banijay factory, which is the owner of the format internationally) and only They retain the ‘Chain Reaction’ contest, which was about to fall off the grid this summer.
Things are going worse for Fénix Media Audiovisual. The production company of Christian Gálvez, Rafa Guardiola and Olga Flórez has seen with regret that Mediaset has canceled ’25 Palabras’. This setback is added to the cancellation of their previous project, ‘Alta tension’, with which they did not come close to the hit that Gálvez and Guardiola achieved as presenter and director, respectively: ‘Pasapalabra’.
“Thank you very much to all of you. We are leaving, but we will see you here, at your house, in Mediaset. We will always have the words, twenty-five, or whatever arise. Rafa Guardiola and I really like two, especially two: passion and perseverance. And another one that goes for you: thank you!”, Christian Gálvez wrote on social networks.
The Madrid presenter has not found stability since Mediaset lost the rights to ‘Pasapalabra’ at the end of 2019. Since then, neither ‘Qarenta’, ‘El Tirón’, ‘Alta Tension’ or ‘Esta noche won yo’ have achieved success of success. And in the case of ‘Tonight I win’ Gálvez ended up angry with his partner in presentation duties, Carolina Cerezuela.
Another of the factories owned by Mediaset that are not up to the task either are Producciones Mandarina, which is clinging to the momentum of events after slightly lifting ‘En boca de todos’ and ‘Code 10’.