Canarian Radio Television

The Radio Televisión Canaria (RTVC) is a public autonomous television and radio entity dependent on the Government of the Canary Islands (Canary Islands, Spain). Its main headquarters are located in the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

Currently, RTVC is governed by Law 13/2014, of December 26, on Public Radio and Television of the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands (BOC no. 3 of January 7, 2015) which regulates the provision of public audiovisual communication service owned by the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands.

The public entity is made up of the TVAP company, the commercial company Televisión Pública de Canarias, S.A. and the public company Radio Pública Canaria, S.A..

It employs 350 workers after the subrogation of the staff of the concessionaire and subcontractors that produced the information services until June 2018.

Radio Televisión Canaria is financed from the regional budgets through a pioneering mixed management model in the State.

History

Background

The project to create the channel arose in December 1994 with the promulgation of Law 8/1994 of the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands relating to Canary Islands Radio and Television.

The mixed model with which Televisión Canaria was launched has been a benchmark for other regional television stations and has been surrounded by controversy when programming contracts were awarded.

The public entity opted for the development of a pioneering management model in the state consisting of the outsourcing of content production, that is, the public company awards the development of all, or almost all, programming through a public tender. This model confronted the central government in the courts, which ended up ruling in favor of the regional executive.

In June 1997, the first Board of Directors of Radio Televisión Canaria (hereinafter, RTVC) was established. In February 1998, the commercial company Televisión Pública de Canarias, S.A was created, with capital entirely coming from public funds of the Government of the Canary Islands and belonging entirely to the RTVC Public Entity.

In a first moment, the Board of Directors assumes the configuration of the programming grid that is prepared by the future concessionaire and subcontracted producers. With this premise, in November 1998, through the public tender procedure and with the votes of the PSOE Canarias and the Canarian Coalition, it awarded the production and execution of the programming and the management of advertising to the Canarian Television Producer (PCTV).

In June 1998, through a public tender, the realization-production of the entire public television programming and its advertising management was awarded to the Productora Canaria de Televisión Canaria (PCTV). This production company is 40% owned by the PRISA Group, but due to a legal problem with a local production company that owns the brand Productora Canaria de Televisión, the concessionaire company for the production of the programming. of the public channel found itself with a judicial resolution that forced it to change the name it used until then. In this way, PCTV was renamed SOCATER (Canarian Regional Television Society).

Launch

On August 21, 1999 and under the name of Televisión Autonómica de Canarias (TVAC) the broadcast of the public channel began, not without the controversy that arose among the local television operators of that time, which They were forced to change broadcast frequencies, as these began to be used for ACTV.

The first broadcast of Canarian Television was in August 1999, with the broadcast of a match between Unión Deportiva Las Palmas and Club Deportivo Tenerife.

The first general director of the Public Entity Radio Television Canaria was Jorge Bethencourt.

First stage

On May 29, 2000, the new production centers of Televisión Canaria were inaugurated in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Shortly after, Francisco Moreno García relieved Jorge Bethencourt as head of the public entity, a position in which he will remain until 2005.

In May 2001, the entirely tourist-oriented Canal Canarias stopped broadcasting to become the international channel of the public entity (analogous to the rest of the regional public television stations with an international signal) Televisión Canaria International, where both the news and the channel's own production programs will be broadcast.

On May 31, 2001, another central government dispute ended with a ruling in favor of RTVC in the Supreme Court. The reason for the complaint had been the administrative silence - which in practice meant denial - of the Ministry of Science and Technology of Spain in response to the request made by the Canarian public entity to operate two digital television programs under direct management regime. terrestrial, in the line provided by Decree 2169/1998.

On July 5 of that same year, Televisión Canaria will join the Federation of Autonomous Radio and Television Organizations (FORTA), with the public entity occupying the rotating position of president of FORTA for the first time with Francisco Moreno.

On October 15, 2001, the channel was renamed Televisión Canaria, using the slogan ours until 2008 to consolidate the brand in the Canary Islands. Without success, the public entity had invited people to tune into the channel on dial 4 of the televisions, which was already occupied by Cuatro, the former Canal+.

On May 30, 2002, Televisión Canaria launched the teletext service and created its first website that collects corporate, programming and news information about the channel.

In 2002, the workers of the concessionaire company mobilized for the approval of the first collective agreement, objectives that they achieved in August 2002, after days of 48-hour strikes.

The following year, on July 24, 2003, Televisión Canaria was integrated into the new Canal+ platform through Canal 96, and in May 2005. This year, test broadcasting began of Televisión Canaria in the digital terrestrial television system with the channel ¡2!, which began on May 30, 2006 and would later be renamed Televisión Canaria Dos.

Public television faces a time of change starting in 2007 marked by the replacement of general directors and the call for a new competition. Francisco Moreno is succeeded in the position since June 2005 by Santiago González, who in October 2007 launched the island's information services and a year later, began the procedure for the renewal of SOCATER's programming contract.

On March 7 of that year, Daniel Cerdán Elcid replaced Santiago González as general director of the Public Entity Radiotelevisión Canaria. Daniel Cerdán's mandate was temporary. After the 2007 regional elections were held, Guillermo García was appointed general director of the entity.

From 2007 to 2015

Guillermo García assumes the general management of RTVC on December 7, 2007 with the objective of strengthening the audiovisual sector of the Canary Islands and imminently launching Canarian radio.

In February 2008, the new director calls for a new competition for technical and material services for the production of informative content programs. Three companies participate in the contest that is resolved at the end of May. On May 27, García awards a contract of 150 million euros, distributed over 8 years, to VideoReportCanarias. S.A, through a negotiated procedure contract with advertising and after leaving the previous one void.

The winning company of the programming contest was 34% owned by Videoreport (100% company of Grupo Vértice 360°), 30% owned by Vnews, 50% owned by Grupo Antena 3, Proima Zebrastur (9%). and the regional newspapers Canarias7 (9%), Diario de Avisos (9%) and El Día (9%), which would end up leaving the consortium shortly after due to a disagreement over the facilities of the news services.

On May 30, 2008, on the occasion of the celebration of Canary Islands Day (as on most relevant occasions for the entity), the test broadcast of Canarias Radio was launched, a radio of regional coverage, managed by the public company Radio Pública Canaria, S.A..

The founding director, Juan Carlos Mateu, describes in his book Luces y Ondas how the creation and implementation of regional public radio was. The radio was born after a personnel selection process through an opposition competition and with Teresa Cruz, as head of News.

On June 14, 2008, Guillermo García presented the contract at the general meeting of RTVC, which would be reported for irregularities before the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office by the two counselors of the PSOE Canarias with the support of the counselor from Nueva Canarias.

That same year, coinciding with the second anniversary of the Televisión Canaria Dos channel on the air, the broadcasting hours of Televisión Canaria Dos were extended, going from 7 hours to 24 hours a day. And in December it launches its new website with a total update of design, content and formats.

In April 2009, the workers supported partial strikes during the negotiation of the company's new collective agreement. On June 14, 2010, the strike ended after reaching an agreement between the company and workers.

The crisis of 2012

In May 2011, elections to the Parliament of the Canary Islands were held, which caused a change in the regional government. Canarian Coalition and the Canary Islands PSOE sign a government pact that includes a change to the Canarian Radio Television Law before the end of the mandate.

As a consequence of this pact, changes occurred in the organizational chart of Radio Televisión Canaria with the departure of the antenna director, Carlos Taboada, and the head of Radio News, Teresa Cruz in September 2011. Claudia Monzón becomes the new antenna director, and the journalist Nayra Aguado, is the new News director.

The crisis and the cuts imposed by the central government provoke the application of an adjustment that entails the suppression of Televisión Canaria Dos on July 30, 2012 and the application of an employment regulation file in the public entity and the concession company VideoReport Canarias. The ERE was applied in September of that year and affected 10 workers at TVP, 10 at Radio and 44 of the 266 workers at the concessionaire company.

The decision of the company Videoreport Canarias was appealed in court. The works council managed to get the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands to agree with it in the first instance; but in April 2015 the Supreme Court endorsed the agreed business decision after the Government of the Canary Islands imposed a 20% reduction in the amount it receives for its services for regional television.

Budget cuts affected programming. In April 2014, RTVC signed an agreement with the Audiovisual Cluster of the Canary Islands (CLAC) to support local audiovisual production, giving programming spaces to production companies that produced programs at zero cost in exchange for advertising management. of space. This agreement occurs amid growing criticism of Guillermo García's management at Radio Televisión Canaria.

In August 2013, Izquierda Unida Canaria (IUC) and the Union of Communication Professionals of the Canary Islands (UPCC) denounced García's management before the courts., presenting a complaint to the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office of Santa Cruz de Tenerife for irregularities in the processing and preparation of RTVC contracts detected in a report from the Canary Islands Audience of Accounts that analyzed, at the request of Parliament, the contracts of the public entity between 2007 and 2011.

At the end of that same year, it was the Popular Party, in opposition, that took the judicial initiative and denounced the alleged irregularities that could have been committed by Radiotelevisión Canaria in the contracting of programs with audiovisual production companies from the Islands. from 2008.

New Law

Canarian Coalition and the Canary Islands PSOE had agreed in the investiture pact to reform the Canarian Radio Television law. In 2014, parliamentary processing of the Canary Islands Public Radio and Television law begins, which is approved in December.

The Canarian Coalition, PSOE and Mixed groups approved, with votes against the PP, the law on Public Radio and Television of the Canary Islands after the first two accepted an amendment from the third on the majority required to elect president and governing council. In this way, to elect the governing council and president of Radio Televisión Canaria it was necessary to have the support of two thirds of the deputies in the first vote (40) or three fifths in the second, and the initial approach of PSOE Canarias and CC that in case of no agreement there would be a third vote, in which the support of the absolute majority (31 deputies) would be enough.

With the approval of the law, the process for the appointment of the new president of the Governing Council begins. On March 25, 2015, journalist Santiago Negrín Dorta is appointed new president of the Governing Council of Radiotelevisión Canaria. With 52 votes in favor and 3 blank, succeeding the general director of the entity, Guillermo García, in office. The members of this first governing council were: Santiago Negrín and María Antonia Álvarez, proposed by CC; María José Bravo de Laguna and Alberto Padrón, proposed by the PP; and María Lorenzo, proposed by the PSOE Canarias. Guillermo García says goodbye to the workers on May 7, 2015.

First Governing Council

Santiago Negrín presents the new television management team on May 15. Journalist Miguel Moreno Guedes assumes the direction of public radio, replacing Juan Carlos Mateu, while Nayra Aguado is replaced by Leticia Martín, at in front of the Information Headquarters.

On May 24, 2015, the elections to the Parliament of the Canary Islands are held and Fernando Clavijo Batlle takes over as president of the Canary Islands government thanks to an agreement with the PSOE Canary Islands.

During this period a period of uncertainty begins for Televisión Canaria. Santiago Negrín's management was marked by the bidding for the new program contract, but also by the economic problems of the public entity and the open crisis in the Governing Council after the resignation of two directors.

In December 2015, the counselor appointed by the Popular Party, María José Bravo de la Laguna, presented her resignation on December 15. Ten days later, María Antonia Álvarez, appointed by the Canarian Coalition, does so. In her farewell, she publicly criticizes the internal functioning of the Governing Council and regrets the obstacles that prevent the implementation of measures that contribute to greater professionalization of the entity.

These criticisms precede a year in which Santiago Negrín's ability to call the new public television programming contest is questioned. The general director of RTVC works on a model in which for the first time production companies are asked what is needed for programming and it is the companies that present their proposals.

In September, in the parliamentary commission Santiago Negrín announced the call for this contest after reporting the extraordinary approval by the Government of the Canary Islands this same month that allows unblocking the limit situation in which the medium found itself..

One month later, on October 26, the president decides to renew the management team to face the new challenges that arise in the relaunch of RTVC.

These appointments were denounced by the Union of Communication Professionals of the Canary Islands (UPCC), in court, considering that the RTVC Law itself was violated. Seven months later, Parliament requests the dismissal of Santiago Negrín in a parliamentary commission marked by harsh criticism of the management carried out in the public entity.

On November 15, 2017, Santiago Negrín once again submitted to the scrutiny of the chamber and remained in office after the motion presented by the Popular Party (PP), Podemos Canarias and Nueva Canarias (NC) failed. who urged his dismissal.

Canarian Coalition (CC) and the Mixed Group vote against the initiative, while the Canary Islands PSOE abstains, as did the popular deputy, Cristina Tavío, who, bypassing party discipline, allowed by omission that it not be will reach the three-fifths of the House necessary to enact a change in the direction of the public entity.

Renewal of the Governing Council

On November 10, 2017, the legal services of the Canary Islands Government responded, in a report requested by the PSOE, to the doubts generated about the legitimacy of Santiago Negrín, president of the Governing Council of the public entity to call the competition for the information services of public television.

That same month, the political parties propose the journalists Marta Cantero (for the Canary Coalition) and Carmen Zamora (for the PSOE Canarias) to fill the vacant positions on the governing council taking into account the 2015 electoral results.

A controversial procedure begins, marked by discrepancies between the different parliamentary groups, which ends in March 2018, when the chamber in its fourth vote rejects the appointment of the two proposals as advisor to the Governing Council.

After this vote, weeks later, the president declared void the first competition for the award of the program contract. With the warning of legal fraud formulated by the secretary of the Governing Council, on March 25, 2018, the president of Radio Televisión Canaria (RTVC), calls by emergency means and by the negotiated procedure without publicity, a competition to award the provision of information services by Televisión Canaria, endowed with 144 million euros for a period of eight years.

The companies invited to the restricted contest are Nuntium TV, made up of Editorial Prensa Canaria (La Provincia and La Opinión de Tenerife), and the PRISA Group; Liquid Media, originally owned by communications magnate Jaume Roures,—now with the majority of a Chinese investment fund—and Videoreport Canarias, owned by, among others, Inforrcasa, the publisher of the Canarias7 newspaper.

Given the pressing deadlines (Videoreport's contract did not allow further extensions beyond June), Santiago Negrín decided to redirect the file towards a negotiated procedure, within the exceptional cases contemplated by the Public Sector Contracts Law for a tender for that budget.

The same three groups that had competed in the contest were invited to participate in the negotiation, and they submitted their offers again.

The contest is resolved in favor of Videoreport Canarias, which wins the concession to continue managing its news for the next eight years as the "most advantageous" for the public entity. The entire file has been dotted with appeals filed by Videoreport, some of them still pending resolution.

Express reform of the law

On April 25, 2018, after the situation created with the call for the competition, the Plenary Session of the Canary Islands Parliament unanimously agreed to take into consideration the two legislative proposals that had been presented to modify Law 13/2014, of 26 December, of Public Radio and Television of the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands, approved in 2014.

One of the law proposals was presented by the Nationalist, Popular and Mixed groups, while the other was from the Socialist group. Both went to parliamentary debate to agree on a new legislative text.

On May 16, 2018, Santiago Negrín presented his resignation for personal reasons, as president and advisor of the Governing Council of Radio Televisión Canaria, a position he had held since 2015.

On May 18, 2018, the Parliament of the Canary Islands unanimously approved the taking into consideration of the bill that provided for the dissolution of the RTVC Governing Council and the appointment of a sole administrator. The proposal, promoted by five parliamentary groups with the exception of NC, which finally supported it, was urgently sent to the Advisory Council.

The Plenary Session of Parliament unanimously agreed on June 13 to modify the law to resolve the future of its workers, and endorsed, two days later, the proposal to appoint José Carlos Naranjo Sintes as sole administrator of Radiotelevisión Canaria., with six votes from CC and ASG and the abstention of the opposition.

Naranjo Sintes, after taking office, is committed to preventing Canarian Television from going black and guaranteeing the continuity of jobs before June 30.

The mandate of José Carlos Naranjo Sintes

In an extraordinary Government Council, held on June 26, the public entity of Radiotelevisión Canaria assumed direct management of the regional channel's news and subrogated the 220 workers of the department by accepting the proposal of the sole administrator until the Parliament of the Canary Islands adopts a definitive management model.

On July 1, public television did not suspend broadcasting thanks to an agreement reached with the concessionaire company Videoreport Canarias, which leased its facilities to the public entity.

Eight months later, in March 2019, Naranjo Sintes awarded the tender to guarantee the broadcast signal for 15 million euros. In the following months, the subrogation of the personnel working in the mobile units and that of the island delegations was completed in June 2019.

On May 26, the regional elections were held, from which a new regional government emerged. PSOE Canarias, Nueva Canarias, Podemos and the Gomera Socialist Group sign the well-known pact of flowers with those who form a new government under the presidency of the socialist Ángel Víctor Torres, who takes office on July 16 of 2019.

The return of Francisco Moreno

On October 24, 2019, the Canary Islands Parliament approved the dismissal of José Carlos Naranjo Sintes, who was ending his term in December, and the appointment of Francisco Moreno as sole administrator of RTVC. The following voted in favor of the appointment: PSOE Canarias, Nueva Canarias, Podemos, ASG, PP and CC and Ciudadanos against. The appointment becomes effective within a period of seven days, thus Francisco Moreno García returns 14 years later as head of RTVC.

Francisco Moreno departure and general administrator

In October 2023, the regional government made up of the Canarian Coalition and the Popular Party, creates the figure of the general administrator of Radiotelevisión Canaria, a figure that will have full powers to manage the Canarian public radio and television, contrary to what happened with the position sole administrator, who had limited powers. At the same time, on October 19, 2023, Francisco Moreno signs a contract with Mediaset España to be News Director and says goodbye to RTVC before the microphones of Canarias Radio on October 27, 2023 and three days later, on the 30th, He leaves the position, joining Mediaset España on October 31, 2023. From October 31, 2023, Paloma María Martín de la Riva, Director of Planning and Management Control of Radiotelevisión Canaria, replaces Moreno until the appointment of the general administrator.

General Managers

Board of Directors (1998-2015)

The Board of Directors of Radio Televisión Canaria was made up of eight members who were elected at the beginning of each legislature.

The presidency of the Council was purely formal and was held on a rotating basis every six months. Its functions, among others, were: action planning; own production that must be issued annually; or the approval of the preliminary draft budget of the public entity and its companies.

The Board of Directors was in operation until 2015.

Governing Council (2015-2018)

In 2014, the parliamentary processing of the Canary Islands Public Radio and Television law begins, which is approved in December of that same year. Article Article 9 establishes the governing bodies of the RTVC public entity:

• 1. The administration and government of the public entity RTVC will correspond to the Governing Council, which will carry out its functions of ordinary executive direction through a Presidency, which will preside over the public entity RTVC.

• 2. For the better performance of mandated public functions, the public entity RTVC shall constitute an Advisory Council and Information Councils, whose organizational and operational rules shall be set out in the Professional Regulations elaborated by the Governing Council.

The Councilors elected by Parliament were:

On April 27, 2015, journalist Santiago Negrín Dorta was appointed president of the new Governing Council of Radiotelevisión Canaria, a position in which he remained until 2018.

Sole administrator (2018-2023)

On June 19, 2018, José Carlos Naranjo Sintes was appointed sole administrator, following the unanimous approval of a modification to the Canarian Radio Television law to protect the public entity until the renewal of the Governing Council.

On October 30, 2019, Francisco Moreno García, who was already general director of RTVC between 2001 and 2005, assumes the position of sole administrator, replacing José Carlos Naranjo Sintes. On October 27, 2023, he resigned from his position after signing with Mediaset to be News Director.

General Administrator (2023-)

The Government Council of the Canary Islands approves on Monday, October 9, 2023, the decree law creating the General Administration of the Public Entity Radio Television Canaria (RTVC), with which the general administrator will have full powers to direct the radio television. The sole administration of RTVC will continue to manage Radio Televisión Canaria until the appointment of the general administrator, although before this occurred, Francisco Moreno left RTVC to be director of Mediaset News, being replaced by Paloma María Martín de la Riva, Director of Planning and Management Control of Radiotelevisión Canaria.

Organisation chart

Corporate

The entity is managed by two public companies: Televisión Pública Canaria, S.A. (TPC, S.A.) and Radio Pública Canaria, S.A. (RPC, S.A.)

Although the registered office of Televisión Canaria is located in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, it has two headquarters and two production centers, one in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and the other in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The radio has the same operating model.

It also has delegations in the rest of the Canary Archipelago and in Madrid.

Canarian Television Programming

Information services are the backbone of Canarian programming, of a general and public service nature.

The Telenoticias and the programs Buenos Días Canarias, Atlántico Noticias, Ponte al día, Conecta Canarias and 1 Hora Less report every day matters of interest that occur in each of the eight islands of the Archipelago.

In addition to these spaces, the biggest changes to the network's regular programming revolve around the news services, with the live broadcast of special events and breaking news.

Entertainment is covered by external productions and film broadcasts, while the extensive sports offer includes the broadcast of matches by the main Canarian teams and events of interest in the Islands.

Information services

The first Televisión Canaria news program was broadcast on December 13, 1999 at 8:30 p.m. Presented by Roberto González and Isabel Baeza, it was a novel format in which regional and island current events were reviewed. The news was divided into independent blocks for general information, sports and weather information. The first director of information services was Lourdes Santana.

Currently the news services have three daily editions and two on weekends:

• Good morning, Canary Islands (07:45): presented by Antonio Hernández and Marta Rodríguez, with Fátima Febles in sports.
• Telenoticias 1 (14:30): presented by Paco Luis Quintana, with Armando Vallejo in sports and Xaila Falcón in meteorology.
• Telenoticias 2 (20:30): presented by Pilar Rumeu, with Dani Álvarez in sports information and Xaila Falcón in meteorology.
• Telenoticias Weekend (14:30 and 20:30): presented by Fátima Plata, with Jesus Left in sports information and Yeray Sosa in meteorology.

Emission

Television

Televisión Canaria groups together for broadcasting within the Canary Islands, a generalist channel that also broadcasts in high definition. The chains can be seen on DTT in the Canary Islands, satellite or cable platforms.

Logo	Canal	Start of transmissions	Image format
	Televisión Canaria Generalist channel	21 August 1999	SD Also available in HD
	Television Canaria HD Generalist channel	29 October 2010	HD Also available in SD

Television abroad

The foreign channel of Televisión Canaria Internacional is available through the Internet.

Logo	Canal	Start of transmissions	Image format
	Televisión Canaria Internacional Generalist channel	1 May 2001	SD

Radio

In radio, Canarias Radio has a station that covers the Canary Islands.

Logo	Emissora	Start of transmissions
	Canary Islands Radio Generalist	30 May 2008

Corporate image of Televisión Canaria

1999-2002	2002-2008	2008 to 2017	2017 to present