RTVE once again boosts its budget for entertainment programmes: it will spend 86 M€ this year
RTVE has been increasing its budget for entertainment programmes in the last two years. The main objective is to increase its audience ratings, which have been depressed for several seasons.
For this year, the corporation’s budget for entertainment programmes is 86.5 million euros, according to RTVE in a parliamentary response to the VOX Group. This is 16% more than in 2022 and 73% more than in 2020. In other words, in two years this item has increased by 36 million euros.
One of the entertainment programmes broadcast by RTVE this year is Días de Tele, presented by Julia Otero and produced by Lacoproductora. This company -owned by the Prisa group- signed contracts last year with the public corporation for 3.9 million euros, and in January 2023 it had signed commitments for more than 6.5 million euros.
Another of RTVE’s entertainment bets this year was Vamos a llevarnos bien, hosted by Ana Morgade. This format was sold by The Pool Talent Management -responsible for Pedro Sánchez’s documentary and also linked to Prisa-, for a price of 3.5 million euros. However, the show has been suspended after broadcasting just one episode due to low ratings, although it will resume later with a different presenter and more changes to the format.
The corporation has increased its allocation for this type of format by 36 million euros in just two years.
Cover Night is still on the schedule. This musical talent is presented by Ruth Lorenzo, Abraham Mateo and Ana Guerra; and produced by Shine Iberia, which signed a contract with RTVE for 7.8 million euros for 12 episodes. This production company is also responsible for MasterChef, the corporation’s big bet on entertainment. In January of this year, Shine Iberia had signed three contracts with RTVE worth 20 million euros for the different editions of MasterChef.
RTVE also highlights in its entertainment menu for this year spaces such as the skills and quiz show INVICTUS ¿te atreves?, the weekly comedy programme José Mota Show or the risk and adventure realiy El Conquistador.
This commitment to entertainment in the last two years has occurred at the same time as RTVE has been reducing the weight of news programmes in its schedule. According to a CNMC report published in 2022, public television has been progressively cutting the cost of this genre. While in 2016 it spent 86 million euros on news programmes, by 2020 this figure had fallen to 67 million euros.
This strategy, however, is not working too well for RTVE. Last year, the public broadcaster registered an audience share of 9.1%, which is only three tenths of a percentage point higher than in 2021, when it reached its historic low.
