The end of the Vasile era at Mediaset, the end of a television model

An earthquake has shaken Spanish television.

The news of the forthcoming retirement of Paolo Vasile, CEO of Mediaset Spain, after 23 years in office, has shaken the foundations of the Spanish audiovisual industry.

The news has not come at any moment: the star channel of the communication group, Telecinco, is experiencing its worst historical moment of audiences.

The end of the Vasile era knows the twilight of a model who reigned for years on national television, but now shows obvious signs of exhaustion.

The Italian executive himself summed it up in an interview with El PAÍS this week when asked about the loss of Telecinco's leadership: "It has two explanations: a very long cycle of leadership and the wear and tear of programs, which is inevitable."

Although its data is far from being catastrophic and it maintains a large number of faithful, it has been overtaken by the eternal rival.

She has reached the beginning of the end of a television model that has reigned in Spain for a decade.

Telecinco was the most watched channel each year from 2012 to 2021. Its television proposal is based on a firm commitment to direct, reality television, the heart (with its own ecosystem of celebrities) and the creation of an autonomous universe that feeds back into throughout the entire grill.

In this way, it is very likely that something commented on

the morning will continue on

in the afternoon to have its next chapter in the

on shift at night.

"Even before the pandemic, I used to say in class that there could be a zombie hecatomb, that they could continue broadcasting because they have a very closed universe with very well structured programming," says Sonia Blanco, professor of television programming at the University from Malaga.

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But the honeymoon with the audience began to come to an end a year ago now.

In June 2022, Antena 3 was proclaimed the leader of the television season for the first time in its history.

If nothing changes, the channel will close 2022 at the forefront of audiences: Antena 3's average daily share so far this year is 13.8%, compared to 12.6% for Telecinco.

Experts agree on Vasile's diagnosis when pointing out the wear of the formula.

"Programming grids begin to fail when they stagnate, and Telecinco's has been stagnant for a long time," says Sonia Blanco.

“I have never seen a grill that works all my life, because audiences change, programs change and the audiovisual offer changes”, she adds.

“There is wear and tear on the model, because it is the only one they have.

They have spent many years betting everything on a horse, which has been a winning horse for a long time, but has worn out”, agrees Mariola Cubells, a journalist specializing in television.

This analyst points out another factor that has to do with the content of the programs: “So many years of digging, so many excesses, so many live humiliations, so much verbal aggression, have fed up the viewer.

They have accustomed the public to a very lively fire, with a lot of wood burning.

You have to maintain the capacity for amazement, and you have no more miseries to tell”.

Along these lines, Cubells points to the pandemic as another factor that has influenced the fall of Telecinco and the rise of Antena 3. "There was a certain need for calm, which is just what Mediaset does not offer."

One of the benefits of the Mediaset model is that it is based on low-cost and highly profitable formats: the day goes by with programs that last several hours and with collaborators and presenters who go from one space to another.

For Natalia Quintas Froufe, professor of Audiovisual Communication at the University of Coruña, what used to be Telecinco's strengths are now weaknesses.

“Betting a lot on direct and reality television.

Before we couldn't see that on almost any screen, but now it's on our social networks daily.

And the characters they had, on which they built all their programming, are already exhausted.

They have tried to renew but they do not have the charisma or the attractiveness that they had.

Roberto Leal, presenter of 'Pasapalabra', one of the programs that explains the shift in television audiences.

Another key has its own name:

.

The loss of the contest by Telecinco in October 2019 and its reappearance in May 2020 on Antena 3 is a turning point that experts point out.

Not only because of the program itself, but because of what surrounds it and how it helped establish

Antena 3

,

(hosted by Vicente Vallés) and

.

José Manuel Eleta, assistant to the management of the consulting firm Barlovento Comunicación, dedicated to audience analysis, highlights some of Antena 3's key movements that have led it to leadership.

One of them was the elimination, in 2018, of

of the time slot of two in the afternoon to put in its place

.

“Both

and

exert an effect of dragging the public towards the news that has caused them to skyrocket.

The success in programming Turkish soap operas was also surprising, especially in the afternoon with

.

It is a strip of extreme fidelity, and if you manage to consolidate a product there, you have it tied up for a long time.

This weakens

and complicates Telecinco's afternoon."

For this reason, in the change of trend in television audiences, Eleta adds to the exhaustion of the Telecinco formula the good work of Antena 3. “They have placed themselves in the viewer's mind as the antithesis of Telecinco, and have known white and entertaining programming, with family programs”.

Sonia Blanco points in the same direction.

“Antena 3 did very well in saying, 'I have lost this war,' it abandoned gossip and social chronicles and devoted itself to whiter entertainment, contests,

and current affairs on La Sexta.

They went for the public who no longer found Telecinco entertaining”.

Some of the contestants on the Telecinco program 'La isla de las tentaciones'.

Another sociological factor also explains this change, and it is how Antena 3 has geared its programming towards audiences over 55 years of age.

Viewers over the age of 55 consume three times as much television as those below, so retaining those viewers is critical.

So far this year, the average age of Telecinco's audience is 57 years old, compared to 61 years for Antena 3, according to data handled by Barlovento Comunicación.

The average age of the viewer of the Atresmedia channel is even higher than that of the viewer of La 1 (60 years), a channel that is traditionally considered to have a very old audience.

From Barlovento they highlight another fact: four years ago, the average age of the public of Antena 3 was 57 years.

In just four years, he has aged the average age of his audience by four years.

is over 64 years old, and the one from

is even older.

On the contrary, Telecinco obtains better results among the public under 55 than in those over 55. The problem is that the young public is the one that has migrated the fastest to platforms and other forms of audiovisual consumption.

"Platforms are taking audiences away from all the traditional channels, there is a drop in consumption of 7 to 10% that is affecting, above all, the younger audience, who are more on Telecinco than on Antena 3", explains Eleta.

Instead, Telecinco can boast of having a more loyal audience than the other channels.

So far this year, Antena 3 has attracted an average of 12.5 million unique viewers daily (number of viewers who spend at least one minute a day on the channel) for a share of 13.8%.

Telecinco reaches 10.6 million unique daily viewers with a 12.6% share.

and the 1,

which probably has its worst audience year in history and is now at an average share of 8.5%, with 11.1 million unique viewers.

That is, four points less share than Telecinco but half a million more viewers throughout the day.

“Telecinco has fewer unique viewers but they consume many more minutes per day”, summarizes Eleta.

Ana Rosa Quintana, together with Paolo Vasile, on October 10, the day of the presenter's return after overcoming breast cancer. Raúl Terrel (Europa Press)

Problems similar to those of Telecinco affect Cuatro, a channel that, according to experts, has spent years without knowing what audience it is targeting.

“It is a continuation of Telecinco.

From the outside, the strategy they proposed of transferring some content from Telecinco to Cuatro does not seem to make sense, they have only managed to dilute their identity”, says Natalia Quintas.

“Does Four have any hallmarks of identity?

No, you could find interchangeable programs on one network and the other, something that does not happen with Antena 3 and La Sexta, they were clear about what they were betting on”, Mariola Cubells defends.

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Now, Mediaset faces an uncertain future in an audiovisual landscape that changes at the speed of light.

“You have to measure very well what remains, what public is willing to return, where is that public that doubts, in what chain, in what slot or if it is out, and go for it so that it returns”, says José Manuel Eleta .

"I don't think they have made a global reflection on what is happening," adds Cubells.

“I think this has shaken them and they have nothing planned.

Be careful, it's not a cataclysm either, they still have their share of the audience, people think they're doing worse than they're doing.

But in a year, a lot has been noticed, ”he completes.

Sonia Blanco believes that they have tried to introduce changes to overcome the situation, but moving in the same parameters that they manage (reality television, social chronicle...) and without much success.

"A clean slate would mean starting from scratch with the audiences, the transition must be done very carefully," he defends.

“It will mean transforming your model, it is not a change of a program and that's it.

It will be a slow process”, says Natalia Quintas Froufe.

“Vasile is television history.

But his television is not the television of today, ”she concludes.

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