PSOE and Podemos agree to change the RTVE contest to elect president

The Coalition Government of the PSOE and Unidos Podemos has set as one of its objectives to renew the RTVE Board of Directors and appoint a new president, after more than a year and a half of interim and minimum audiences.

But, far from wanting to reactivate the Public Contest, which is blocked and pending resolution of more than twenty resources (some candidates have gone to court), the party led by Pedro Sánchez chooses to launch a completely new contest and renewed, which allows speeding up the change in the direction of public television and reflects the new composition of the Congress. “We defend a plural, independent, public, transparent and quality RTVE model (…) promoting the renewal of the Board of Directors by improving the public tender system,” is set forth in point 64 of the Government agreement for a progressive Spain, presented by Iglesias and Sánchez.

This newspaper has contacted the PSOE and Podemos to know the general lines of the changes with which they seek to improve the contest, but ensure that there is still “nothing concrete.” For their part, sources close to the process say that the socialist party does not want to move forward with the one that is underway, because “it is flawed” and it would be difficult to unlock it. At this point, the expert table formed to elect the candidates for the Board of Directors no longer represents the new Congress, in which Citizens have lost weight in favor of Vox and Podemos has a historical interest in having weight in the public chain.

In turn, the new Executive is in a hurry to remove Rosa María Mateo from the position of sole administrator, since his management is not giving the expected results and job instability is growing (the unions threatened to prevent the issuance of the Christmas Fat ) and has trouble getting head of news, after the resignation of Begoña Alegría and the espantá of Almudena Ariza. Enric Hernández has taken office temporarily. At this point, the audience of 1 It is at historical lows and the news remain in third position. In December, the first television network marked two maximums with the issuance of the Lottery and the Campanadas, but it has still closed with a 10% audience, less than in the same month of 2019.

The changes, to exam

Coinciding with the loss of prestige of television, the management of the Corporation has hired Imop Insights, for 51,727 euros, to conduct an image study of RTVE. Although this type of research is carried out periodically (the last report is from 2017), the truth is that the management has a special interest in knowing what viewers think about the changes in the programming, contents and television faces carried out under Mateo’s address since last season. Specifically, ask about “the overall degree of perception of the changes made” and “the assessment and suitability” of them.

Regarding the programs, the study places special emphasis on knowing the opinion of the population about the changes introduced in the TVE Breakfast area, which happened to depend on Xabier Fortes and lost followers, and his feeling regarding the election of Máximo Huerta, former Minister of Culture, as presenter of As of today and the originality of the program proposal. It also examines María Casado and the Torres Brothers exit.

“These studies are carried out to increase the knowledge of users' habits and consumption experiences, as well as the valuation they make of the service provided by RTVE, and to test their opinion on the offer of audiovisual content”, also includes the chain in the bidding documents.

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