RTVE
Radiotelevisión Española

Type	State-owned corporation
Industry	Mass media
Genre	Public broadcasting service
Founded	1956; 63 years ago (1956)
Founder	Spanish Government
Headquarters	Pozuelo de Alarcón, Community of Madrid , Spain
Area served	Spain
Key people	Rosa María Mateo, Sole Administrator
Services	Television, radio, online
Revenue	€ 980 million[1]
Net income	€ 25 millions
Owner	Government of Spain
Number of employees	6,500
Subsidiaries	Radio Nacional de España Televisión Española
Website	rtve.es

The Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española, S.A.^[2] (Spanish Radio and Television Corporation) is the state-owned public corporation that assumed the indirect management of the Spanish public radio and television service formerly called Ente Público Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE Public Entity) in 2007. RTVE is the largest audiovisual group in Spain broadcasting in the Spanish language. Since January 2010 it is financed exclusively by public subsidies.

Role as a public broadcaster[edit]

In the exercise of its public service function, among the obligations of the RTVE Corporation are:

• Promote dissemination and awareness of constitutional principles and civic values.


• Guarantee the objectivity and truthfulness of the information provided, while ensuring that a broad range of views is presented.


• Facilitate democratic debate and the free expression of opinion.


• Promote the territorial cohesion and linguistic and cultural diversity of Spain.


• Offer access to different genres of programming and to the institutional, social, cultural, and sporting events that are of interest to all sectors of the audience, paying attention to those topics that are of special interest to the public.


• To serve the widest audience, ensuring maximum continuity and geographical and social coverage, with a commitment to quality, diversity, innovation, and high ethical standards.

History[edit]

RTVE throughout its history has undergone numerous restructurings and reorganisations, and has assumed numerous identities. The history of RTVE begins in 1937 with the first broadcasts by Radio Nacional de España (RNE—Spanish National Radio) from the city of Salamanca. In these early years, RNE served as a propaganda tool for the Nationalist forces during the Spanish Civil War; it would later be used by Francisco Franco to inform the Spanish public.^{[citation needed]}

Television was officially introduced in Spain in October 1956, and in October 1973 the two broadcasting networks, RNE and Televisión Española (TVE—Spanish Television) were consolidated into the Servicio Público Centralizado RadioTelevisión Española (RTVE Centralised Public Service).

Further consolidations followed in 1977, at which time RTVE became an autonomous organisation. In 1979 TVE, RNE were joined by RCE an old radio service which, unlike RNE, could broadcast commercials. In 1980, RTVE was configured, by statute, as a legal public entity with its own jurisdiction.^[3] According to RTVE's annual report (2003): "This law arose from the Spanish Constitution and the political pluralism which the constitution asserts as a fundamental value of the rule of law; and in this spirit granted RTVE the right to function as a democratic organisation."^[4] The former cinema newsreels 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.

Studio of TVE's flagship show, Los Desayunos de TVE

In accordance with the Law of State Radio and Television of 5 June 2006,^[5] 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 the Corporación RTVE came into existence.^[6] This change in the law put Corporación RTVE in control of Spain's public radio and television service.

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 spite of the fact that RTVE is the European public broadcasting service with the smallest workforce.

In 2012 political tensions associated with the austerity program of the conservative ruling party, Partido Popular (PP) resulted in personnel changes which displaced journalists interviewed by the centre-left The Guardian interpreted as an effort to remove critical political comment from RTVE's content. In 2012 the PP began staffing RTVE with party veterans.^[7] Considerable controversy was caused when Ana Pastor was fired.^[7]

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 Filmoteca Española, which is available via Internet with more than 4000 videos of Spanish films and documentaries.^[8]

Management[edit]

RNE's headquarters, Casa de la Radio (Radio's house) in Pozuelo (Madrid).

Pursuant to the 2006 Law of State Radio and television,^[5] management of the national public service is entrusted to Corporación RTVE.^[9] The Administrative Council (Consejo de Administración) 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.^[10][11] The Administrative Council is composed of 12 members; 8 members are chosen by Congress 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.^[10]

The President has operational control of day-to-day operations, in order to execute the decisions and guidance of the Administrative Council.^[11][9] The President is appointed by, and may be dismissed by, Congress.^[9] Before the 2006 Act, this position was filled by the role of the Director General, which had a de facto total control of RTVE.^[12] In practice, the Director General had been chosen by the Government for their political profile.^[13]

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.^[9] The News Council is an internal supervisory body composed of RTVE journalists with the aim of safeguarding RTVE's independence.^[9]

Correspondents[edit]

Television channels[edit]

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 TVE Catalonia (branded as TVE Catalunya) which is principally in Spanish with certain programming in Catalan.

Channel's logo	Type of programming
	La 1: Colloquially known as La Uno (The One) and formerly as TVE1, La Primera (The First). La 1 is a generalist channel which mainly broadcasts news reports, news programmes, documentaries, magazine programmes, TV series, films (particularly Spanish and American films) and some popular sports competitions. It was Spain's first TV channel and is currently its third most watched.
	La 2: Colloquially known as La Dos (The Two) and formerly as TVE2, Segunda Cadena (Second Channel), or UHF. La 2 mainly broadcasts cultural programming, North American TV series, documentaries, Spanish and European films, news reports, debates and musicals. It offers a different aspect from its generalist sister channel, La 1.
	Clan: Formerly known as Clan TVE. Clan a children's channel, but also offers some programming aimed at teenagers during the evening and repeats TVE content from other channels during the early hours.
	Teledeporte: Teledeporte broadcasts sporting competitions that can not be broadcast on La 1 and La 2 due to lack of interest from the audience.
	24h: 24 horas is RTVE's 24-hour news channel created in 1997. It broadcasts news reports, debates, analyses, interviews as well as rolling news. It was Spain's first 24-hour news channel.
	La 1 HD: La 1 in High-definition.
	La 2 HD: La 2 in High-definition.
	Clan HD: Clan in High-definition.
	Teledeporte HD: Teledeporte in High-definition.
	TVE Internacional: RTVE international television channel. It was created in 1989 and broadcasts TVE content throughout the world.
	Star TVE HD [es]: International entertainment television channel, broadcast by satellite to Latin America. Launched in 2016.

Radio stations[edit]

RTVE's radio stations come under the Radio Nacional de España division of RTVE.

Station logo	Type of programming
	Radio Nacional: (formerly known as Radio 1) RNE Radio Nacional is RTVE's generalist radio station. Its programming is mainly news and other programmes. It started broadcasting in 1937.
	Radio Clásica: (formerly known as Radio 2) Radio Clásica mainly broadcasts classical music. It started broadcasting in 1965.
	Radio 3: Radio 3 broadcasts cultural and alternative programming aimed at young people. It started broadcasting in 1979.
	Ràdio 4: Ràdio 4 is RTVE's Catalan-language station aimed at people living in Catalonia and other Catalan-speaking territories. It was created in 1988 after the closure of Radiocadena Española.
	Radio 5: (formerly known as Radio 5 Todo Noticias) is RTVE's 24-hour radio news station. It started broadcasting in 1994.
	Radio Exterior de España: 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. Transmissions are in Spanish, French, Arabic, Ladino, Portuguese, Russian and English.

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 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 around the world. From 1979 to 1987, a second radio network known as Radiocadena Española was also a part of RTVE.^[16] RCE stations, unlike RNE, showed advertising. RCE was merged into RNE between 1987 and 1989.^[17]NO-DO was also merged into RTVE in 1980. Since NO-DO's closure in 1982, RTVE and Filmoteca Española are responsible for maintaining NO-DO's archives.^[18]

Internet[edit]

RTVE offers an online portal at rtve.es. The website is managed by RTVE's Interactive Media department and allows users to listen and watch live feeds of the network's radio and television stations. The portal also features blogs, news stories and offers an online catch-up service called "A la carta".

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• 
  Official website (in Spanish)