The fourth time was the charm. This Wednesday, the board of directors of RTVE gave the green light to the signing of David Broncano and his team for two seasons, at a cost of 28 million euros and a shield of 18 months. The decision was made during an extraordinary call that began around 11:30 a.m. and which, as has happened throughout these turbulent weeks, has not been without controversy.
According to Corporation sources, the two blocks that had shown their deep division during the last month, have maintained the meaning of their vote this Wednesday. With the absence once again of the former interim president Elena Sánchez, the agreement has received four votes in favor from the interim president, Concepción Cascajosa; of the other counselor at the proposal of the PSOE, Ramón Colom; of the PNV member, Juan José Baños, and one of the two members proposed by Unidas Podemos, Roberto Lakidain.
Four 'yeses' compared to the three votes against by the three members of the PP (Consuelo Aparicio, Jenaro Castro, Carmen Sastre) and, again, the abstention of José Manuel Martín Medem (member of the PCE at the proposal of Unidas Podemos at the time). , but now integrated into Sumar). In reality, the scenario was identical to that of last week, when the president paralyzed the voting on all audiovisual projects. Cascajosa then requested reports from the State Society of Industrial Participations (SEPI) and the State Attorney's Office to see if in a situation like this, with four councilors in favor, three against and one abstention, he could make use of the casting vote, something that both organizations have endorsed. That is why on this occasion the interim president has used her casting vote, reaching the five votes necessary to approve the agreement. Sources close to the Corporation's board of directors point out that the result raises legal doubts and assure that they will analyze whether the State Attorney's report does not violate the RTVE Statutes.
The approval of the council was the last obstacle to the agreement, which already had the approval of the legal team and the Corporation's purchasing committee. Along the way, the controversy surrounding the star signing of the season has served to stage the deep division not only in the board of directors of RTVE, but also between former interim president Elena Sánchez and senior management. A division that reached its zenith just before the Easter holidays, with the dismissal of RTVE's Director of General Content José Pablo López and Elena Sánchez herself.
Contract
The intention of the public entity is to transfer the concept of 'The Resistance' to La 1's 'access prime time' to stand up to 'El hormiguero' by Pablo Motos during the next season, a space for humor and interviews that today is the most successful on Spanish television. It will not be an easy undertaking, which is why the two-season agreement – the first will run from September 2024 to July 2025 and the second, from September 2025 to July 2026, with a minimum of 155 programs per year -, at a rate of 14.07 million euros each, in some way shields the production of Encofrados Encofrasa, owned by Broncano, Ricardo Castella and Jorge Ponce – the presence of the three is a mandatory condition “unless otherwise agreed” – and El Terrat before the possibility that the interview and humor space does not meet expectations in terms of audience.
In this sense, during the first 18 months, that is, the twelve of the first season and the first six of the second, there is no cut-off clause. The decision implies that even if the audience data is bad, the program cannot be canceled. Of course, if during its first season it does not maintain the network's average audience in that time slot, 7.5%, the contract states that its initially planned broadcast schedule may be modified or “adopt another solution by mutual agreement.” something that would bring the space closer to late night. This means that the presenter from Jaén and his team would be untouchable until the second half of the second season. Only then could the contract be terminated if the established audience minimums are not reached for four consecutive months. Minimums that, if it continued to be broadcast in 'access prime time' would be 7.5% and if it had been relegated to 'late night' it would be around 8% of the screen share.
With around 160 installments per season, each installment will be broadcast from Monday to Thursday starting at 9:30 p.m. or 9:45 p.m., which implies a reduction of between 25 and 10 minutes from the second edition of the Newscast. In this way, the duration of the news program would be close to what it was when La 1 had advertising. Each episode will have a duration of between 70 and 80 minutes, with a maximum of 87,975.85 euros plus VAT on average per episode. The agreement also indicates that the budget per season could be lowered depending on the needs of the program and new agreements between the parties. Finally, the production will be fake live, and may be taken live due to the needs of RTVE, prior agreement with El Terrat.
With the green light from the board of directors, the team will make the leap to general and free-to-air television, a challenge for a space that has caught on among the younger audience, through its 'reels' on social networks such as YouTube, Instagram or TikTok, but it still has to demonstrate its good behavior on free-to-air and linear television and before the audience meters that are the ones who ultimately decide if something is successful or not.
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