The Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española, S.A. (; ), known as Radiotelevisión Española or RTVE, is the state-owned public corporation that assumed in 2007 the indirect management of the
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
public radio and television service known as Ente Público Radiotelevisión Española.
It provides multi-station television (
TVE) and radio services (
RNE), as well as online and streaming services. Since the entry into force of the ''Ley de Financiación de RTVE'' in 2009, RTVE is primarily funded by a combination of subsidies from the
General State Budget
The General State Budget (PGE) (''Spanish: Presupuestos Generales del Estado'') comprises the spending and revenues of the Spanish central government. The PGE is considered the most important act that a government enacts in a year and determine i ...
and a fee levied on the private agents'
gross revenue
In accounting, revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of goods and services related to the primary operations of the business.
Commercial revenue may also be referred to as sales or as turnover. Some companies receive reven ...
(3.0 % for private free-to-air channels, a 1.5 % for private subscription channels and a 0.9 % for telecom companies).
RTVE is a full member of the
European Broadcasting Union
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; french: Union européenne de radio-télévision, links=no, UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who ar ...
(EBU). The corporation's central headquarters are located in
Pozuelo de Alarcón
Pozuelo de Alarcón () is a municipality in the Community of Madrid, Spain. Bordering the Moncloa-Aravaca district of Madrid proper to its west, Pozuelo de Alarcón is surrounded by large Mediterranean pine-tree forests: the Casa de Campo, the ...
.
History
Precedents
![Torrespana-260316](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/Torrespana-260316.jpg)
Spanish state-wide public broadcasting services have undergone numerous
restructuring
Restructuring is the corporate management term for the act of reorganizing the legal, ownership, operational, or other structures of a company for the purpose of making it more profitable, or better organized for its present needs. Other reasons ...
s and reorganisations throughout its history, and have
assumed numerous identities. Their history may be traced back to the first radio broadcasts of
Radio Nacional de España
Radio Nacional de España (acronym RNE, branded rne, "National Radio of Spain") is the national state-owned public service radio broadcaster in Spain.
RNE is the radio division and Televisión Española (TVE) is the television division of R ...
(RNE) from
Salamanca
Salamanca () is a city in western Spain and is the capital of the Province of Salamanca in the autonomous community of Castile and León. The city lies on several rolling hills by the Tormes River. Its Old City was declared a UNESCO World Herit ...
, developed as propaganda tool for the
Rebel faction
The Nationalist faction ( es, Bando nacional) or Rebel faction ( es, Bando sublevado) was a major faction in the Spanish Civil War of 1936 to 1939. It was composed of a variety of right-leaning political groups that supported the Spanish Coup ...
during the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...
. RNE was founded on 19 January 1937 and was subservient to the State Delegation for Press and Propaganda led by
Vicente Gay Forner
Vicente is an Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese name. Like its French variant, Vincent, it is derived from the Latin name ''Vincentius'' meaning "conquering" (from Latin ''vincere'', "to conquer").
Vicente may refer to:
Location
*São Vicente, Cap ...
.
Throughout the
Francoist dictatorship
Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Sp ...
, the national radio service depended successively on the
FET y de las JONS
The Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista (FET y de las JONS; ), frequently shortened to just "FET", was the sole legal party of the Francoist regime in Spain. It was created by General Francisco ...
's
Vice-Secretariat for Popular Education The Vice-Secretariat for Popular Education ( es, Vicesecretaría de Educación Popular, links=no; VSEP) was an internal body of FET y de las JONS existing during the early stages of the Francoist dictatorship in Spain. It took over press and propaga ...
(VSEP), on the (since 1945) and on the
Ministry of Information and Tourism
The Ministry of Information and Tourism () was a ministerial department of the Government of Spain created in 1951 during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco to control information and the censorship to press and radio. The ministry also assume ...
, since the creation of the latter in 1951. In July 1945, in the wake of the transfer of responsibilities over Press and Propaganda to the Ministry of National Education, radio broadcasting became a standalone directorate general: the ''Dirección General de Radiodifusión'' ('Directorate General for Radio Broadcasting').
After some time on trial, the first
Televisión Española
Televisión Española (acronym TVE, branded tve, "Spanish Television") is Spain's national state-owned public television broadcaster and the oldest regular television service in the country. It was also the first regular television service in ...
(TVE) signal broadcast on 28 October 1956 from the Madrid's Paseo de la Habana, reaching the roughly 600 television receivers existing in Madrid at the time. In October 1973, the two networks for respectively radio and television broadcasting, RNE and TVE, were consolidated into the ''Servicio Público Centralizado Radiotelevisión Española'' ('RTVE Centralised Public Service'). Up until the 1980s, with the creation of regional broadcasters
ETB and
TV3, TVE held the monopoly on television broadcasting in the country.
Further consolidations followed in 1977, at which time RTVE became an . In 1979, TVE and RNE were joined by Radiocadena Española (RCE), an old radio service that, unlike RNE, could broadcast commercials. Under the purview of the 1980 , the public broadcasting services were configured as a legal public entity () with its own jurisdiction, the .
The former cinema
newsreels
A newsreel is a form of short documentary film, containing news stories and items of topical interest, that was prevalent between the 1910s and the mid 1970s. Typically presented in a cinema, newsreels were a source of current affairs, inform ...
service
NO-DO was merged into RTVE to be dismantled in 1981. Since then, the NO-DO archives are property of RTVE and its conservation is on their hands and Filmoteca Nacional's. In 1989, RCE was dismantled and its radio service was merged into RNE.
RTVE Corporation
In accordance with the Law of State Radio and Television of 5 June 2006,
and in the face of an enormous deficit, the RTVE Public Body and the companies TVE, S.A. and RNE, S.A were dissolved, and on 1 January 2007, Corporación RTVE came into existence. RTVE was thus constituted as a fully autonomous ''sociedad mercantil estatal'', assuming the corporate form of a ''
sociedad anónima'' fully participated by the State. For the first time, the chair of the public broadcasting services was appointed by the
Cortes Generales
The Cortes Generales (; en, Spanish Parliament, lit=General Courts) are the bicameral legislative chambers of Spain, consisting of the Congress of Deputies (the lower house), and the Senate (the upper house).
The Congress of Deputies meet ...
(the legislative) rather than by the
Government of Spain
gl, Goberno de España eu, Espainiako Gobernua
, image =
, caption = Logo of the Government of Spain
, headerstyle = background-color: #efefef
, label1 = Role
, data1 = Executive power
, label2 = Established
, da ...
(the executive), as it had been previously the case with the directors-general of the ''ente público'' and the ''servicio público de radiodifusión''.
As part of the 2007 restructuring, a controversial plan was put into action to reduce the workforce by 4,855 through attrition and
retirement incentives.
In 2012 political tensions associated with the austerity policies enacted by the ruling right-leaning
People's Party (PP) resulted in departures of personnel, which were interpreted by interviewed journalists as an effort to purge critical political comment from RTVE's content. In 2012 the PP began staffing RTVE with party veterans.
Considerable controversy was caused when
Ana Pastor was fired.
On 11 June 2013, RTVE was one of the few known European broadcasters to condemn and criticise the closure of Greece's state broadcaster
ERT.
In December 2018, RTVE launched a web with
Filmoteca Española
The Filmoteca Española (Spanish Cinemathèque) is an official institution of the Spanish Ministry of Culture. Its objective is to restore, investigate and conserve the film heritage of Spain and its diffusion.
Sites
Its cinema where films are ...
, which is available via Internet with more than 4000 videos of Spanish films and documentaries.
Amid the inability to reach a parliamentary agreement for the renovation of the administration board of RTVE,
Rosa María Mateo
Rosa María Mateo Isasi (born 6 January 1942), is a Spanish journalist and renowned television news anchor during the Transition. From July 2018 to March 2021, she served as the Provisional Sole Administrator of RTVE, the national public radio ...
was appointed as Provisional Sole Administrator in July 2018. In February 2021, the renovation was unblocked and
José Manuel Pérez Tornero was shortlisted as the future chairman of the corporation. Thus, the new board was constituted on 26 March 2021.
In October 2021, the corporation's decision to deny a travel of a group of RTVE journalists to Tindouf to attend an event organised by the
Polisario Front
The Polisario Front, Frente Polisario, Frelisario or simply Polisario, from the Spanish abbreviation of (Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Río de Oro), (in ar, rtl=yes, الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير الس ...
and thus be presumably able to interview
Brahim Ghali
Brahim Ghali () ( ar, rtl=yes, إبراهيم غالي, Ibrāhīm Ġālī; es, Brahim Gali; born 16 September 1949) is a Sahrawi politician and military officer that serves as the current president of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) ...
stirred controversy and led to the renunciation of both TVE and RNE heads of the international informative services.
Services
Television
![TVE](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/TVE.svg)
RTVE's own television service comes under the Televisión Española (TVE) division of RTVE. All of TVE's channels broadcast in Spanish, with the exception of the broadcast of
Catalan-language
Catalan (; autonym: , ), known in the Valencian Community and Carche as ''Valencian'' (autonym: ), is a Western Romance language. It is the official language of Andorra, and an official language of three autonomous communities in eastern Spa ...
segments in La 1 and La 2 in the territory of
Catalonia
Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy.
Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...
produced by .
The domestic offer provided by TVE comprises two generalist channels (
La 1 and
La 2) and three thematic channels:
Teledeporte
Teledeporte (TDP) is a Spanish free-to-air television channel owned and operated by Televisión Española (TVE), the television division of state-owned public broadcaster Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE). It is the corporation's sports telev ...
(sports programming),
24 Horas (news) and
Clan (children's programming). Together with the broadcast of the standard definition signal, they are also available in
High-definition.
Regarding
international broadcasting
International broadcasting, in a limited extent, began during World War I, when German and British stations broadcast press communiqués using Morse code. With the severing of Germany's undersea cables, the wireless telegraph station in Nauen was ...
, TVE commercializes the following channels:
TVE Internacional
TVE Internacional is a Spanish satellite free-to-air and pay television channel owned and operated by Televisión Española (TVE), the television division of state-owned public broadcaster Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE). It is the corporati ...
,
24 Horas Internacional, , and Clan Internacional.
Radio
![Logo RNE](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/Logo_RNE.svg)
RTVE's radio stations come under the Radio Nacional de España (RNE) division of RTVE.
The domestic offer provided by RNE includes the following radio stations:
Radio Nacional (generalist radio station),
Radio Clásica (classical music),
Radio 3 (cultural and alternative programming aimed at young people),
Ràdio 4
Ràdio 4 is a Spanish free-to-air radio station owned and operated by Radio Nacional de España (RNE), the radio division of state-owned public broadcaster Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE). It is the corporation's Catalan language radio station, ...
(Catalan-language station broadcast in Catalonia and Andorra) and
Radio 5 (24-hour radio news station).
Radio Exterior
Radio Exterior de España (REE) or simply Radio Exterior is a Spanish free-to-air radio station owned and operated by Radio Nacional de España (RNE), the radio division of state-owned public broadcaster Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE). It is t ...
(REE) is the RNE's international broadcasting service on short wave, with an audience of 80 million listeners (surpassed only by the BBC and Vatican Radio). This station is also transmitted via DAB for Spain and by satellite. Besides Spanish, REE also transmits programming in
French,
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
,
Ladino
Ladino, derived from Latin, may refer to:
* The register of Judaeo-Spanish used in the translation of religious texts, such as the Ferrara Bible
*Ladino people, a socio-ethnic category of Mestizo or Hispanicized people in Central America especi ...
,
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
,
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
and
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
.
Internet
![RTVE Play logo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/RTVE_Play_logo.svg)
RTVE's online portal is located at 'rtve.es'. The website is managed by RTVE's Interactive Media department (). It hosts the corporation's
over-the-top media service
An over-the-top (OTT) media service is a media service offered directly to viewers via the Internet. OTT bypasses cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms: the types of companies that traditionally act as controllers or distributors ...
,
RTVE Play
RTVE Play (often stylized as rtve play) is the over-the-top media service provided by the Spanish public broadcaster RTVE. It was launched in Spain on 22 June 2021, replacing the old catalogue 'RTVE a la carta', created in turn in 2008.
History ...
, which replaced the old 'RTVE a la carta' in June 2021, adding additional features. RTVE streams content in the Americas on the 'RTVE Play+' pay subscription service.
Besides the catalogue from the RTVE Archive, it allows users to listen and watch live feeds of the network's radio and television stations, as well as original programming from
Playz
Playz (stylised as playz) is an online service belonging to Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE), the Spanish public broadcaster, streaming free-to-air content for a young audience. It was launched on 30 October 2017.
History
Embedded within the R ...
, a hub of streaming content aimed towards a young audience. The RTVE.es portal also features blogs and news stories.
Other
RTVE is also responsible for the ''Instituto Oficial de Radio y Televisión'' (IORTV, Official Institute of Radio and TV) and the ''
Orquesta Sinfónica y Coro de RTVE'' (RTVE Symphony Orchestra and Choir). RTVE (as RNE) was admitted to full active membership of the
European Broadcasting Union
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; french: Union européenne de radio-télévision, links=no, UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who ar ...
in 1955. TVE joined the Eurovision Network in 1960. The corporation has contributed to the production of more than 300 films, many of which have received awards at international
film festivals
A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upo ...
around the world. From 1979 to 1987, a second radio network known as Radiocadena Española was also a part of RTVE. RCE stations, unlike RNE, showed advertising. RCE was merged into RNE between 1987 and 1989.
NO-DO was also merged into RTVE in 1980. Since NO-DO's closure in 1982, RTVE and
Filmoteca Española
The Filmoteca Española (Spanish Cinemathèque) is an official institution of the Spanish Ministry of Culture. Its objective is to restore, investigate and conserve the film heritage of Spain and its diffusion.
Sites
Its cinema where films are ...
are responsible for maintaining NO-DO's archives.
Management
Pursuant to the 2006 Law of State Radio and Television,
management of the national public service is entrusted to '. The Board (') of the RTVE is the main body of RTVE, and appoints the executive officers of RTVE and its companies, approves its organisation, and approves most major activities.
The Board is composed of 12 members; 8 members are chosen by
Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...
and 4 by the
Senate, each by two-thirds majority and each for a non-renewable mandate of 6 years, and 2 members appointed by Congress must be proposed by the 2 main trade unions at RTVE.
The
Chair has operational control of day-to-day operations, in order to execute the decisions and guidance of the Board.
The Chair is appointed by, and may be dismissed by, Congress. Before the 2006 Act, this position was filled by the role of the Director General, which had a ''de facto'' total control of RTVE. In practice, the Director General had been chosen by the Government for their political profile.
Corporación RTVE is described as a "state mercantile society" (''sociedad mercantil estatal'') with special autonomy and independence from the government and the general state administration, and it performs its functions through
TVE and
RNE.
Most staff are civil servants. The News Council is an internal supervisory body composed of RTVE journalists with the aim of safeguarding RTVE's independence.
The current RTVE board constituted on 26 March 2021 is chaired by
José Manuel Pérez Tornero, also featuring
Elena Sánchez Caballero
Elena Sánchez Caballero (born 25 December 1957) is a Spanish journalist. Since August 2018, she has been RTVE's corporate secretary general, a member of the team led by Rosa María Mateo. From 2008 to 2014 she was RTVE's viewer ombudsman.
Bi ...
, , Carmen Sastre, , , Roberto Lakidain, , Consuelo Aparicio and
Concepción Cascajosa
Concepción Carmen Cascajosa Virino (born 1979) is a Spanish lecturer, working at the Charles III University of Madrid (UC3M). Her main research line is the history of audiovisual media. She has been noted as one of the foremost specialists on te ...
as board members.
Upon the renunciation of Pérez Tornero in September 2022, Elena Sánchez Caballero was elected by the board as the acting chair of the RTVE corporation.
Funding
Since the entry into force of the ''Ley de Financiación de RTVE'' in 2009, RTVE is primarily funded by a combination of subsidies from the
General State Budget
The General State Budget (PGE) (''Spanish: Presupuestos Generales del Estado'') comprises the spending and revenues of the Spanish central government. The PGE is considered the most important act that a government enacts in a year and determine i ...
and a fee levied on the private agents'
gross revenue
In accounting, revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of goods and services related to the primary operations of the business.
Commercial revenue may also be referred to as sales or as turnover. Some companies receive reven ...
(3.0 % for private free-to-air channels, a 1.5 % for private subscription channels and a 0.9 % for telecom companies).
As of 2021, a preliminary draft for the ''Ley General de Comunicación Audiovisual'' reportedly foresees the extension of the 1.5% fee on gross revenues to international streaming platforms offering services in Spain (such as
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
,
HBO,
Disney+
Disney+ is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned and operated by the Media and Entertainment Distribution division of The Walt Disney Company. The service primarily distributes films and television se ...
,
Amazon Prime Video
Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming and Renting, rental service of Amazon (c ...
or
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
) and the drop of the 0.9% fee for telecom companies, although the latter will continue contributing in terms of the fee levied for the occupation of the spectrum.
RTVE will also be able to monetize limited forms of advertising, such as
sponsorship
Sponsoring something (or someone) is the act of supporting an event, activity, person, or organization financially or through the provision of products or services. The individual or group that provides the support, similar to a benefactor, is k ...
s and advertising in its international channels.
References
Bibliography
*
*
External links
*
{{Authority control
Publicly funded broadcasters
State media