Questions and answers about the legal battle of 'Pasapalabra': 'El Rosco' is not in danger in the immediate future

The Provincial Court of Barcelona condemned, in a sentence made public on Thursday, the Atresmedia group, owner of Antena 3, to stop broadcasting

contest 

as well as to pay compensation of 50,000 euros to the plaintiff, the Dutch company MC&F , which itself claims ownership rights to the popular test.

However, the resolution still does not mean the end of the long judicial struggle for the issuance of

as it will be appealed to the Supreme Court.

These are the answers to the main questions raised by the conflict:

Can

At the moment,

is not in danger.

The decision of the Court of Barcelona that forces Atresmedia to stop broadcasting it would only be immediate if the communication group decided to abide by it from Monday.

It is not the case.

As explained to this newspaper, Atresmedia plans to appeal the decision in the Supreme Court.

Even if MC&F requested precautionary measures or a provisional execution of the broadcast stop on Antena 3, it would take time for them to be applied.

First you will have to wait for Atresmedia to formalize the appeal, and then for the judges to accept your request on a precautionary basis.

So it can take several years until a new ruling, firm or precautionary, is issued in favor or against the group.

There is still time left for you to force yourself to

Spanish to change its mechanics.

In addition, at this time, the British production company ITV Studios, which markets the format in Spain, may reach an agreement with the Dutch company.

How was 'El Rosco' born?

El Rosco

is the origin of the legal conflicts of

, both those that Mediaset had and the current ones of Atresmedia.

But they are different problems, although both revolve around this test.

Pasapalabra

is an original British format, called

whose broadcasts began in the mid-nineties.

In that original version there was no rosco.

The popular final test came later.

It was called

, in reference to the number of questions to answer correctly and the number of seconds the contestants had to win the prize.

Its authors claim to have the license through their company, the Dutch MC&F.

They sold the rights to only the Italian version, to incorporate it into

, which called it

(roulette of letters).

Britain's ITV revived the format as

, but in its original version, without

.

It is the version that was sold to Spain, only here it includes the Italian update.

That is the origin of the problem.

Mediaset decided to break the agreement with ITV Studios, claiming that it could not market a format that was not entirely its own.

After years of litigation, in 2019 the Spanish Supreme Court sided with ITV and ordered Telecinco "to immediately cease its broadcast, furthermore being prohibited from resuming in the future, the broadcast, edition, production, reproduction, public communication, distribution, transformation and all and any other form of exploitation, by itself or through third parties, of the

The Dutch MC&F did not intervene in this judicial confrontation.

But, upon learning that the format was returning to the Spanish market (and that Atresmedia was acquiring it again almost immediately in agreement with ITV Studios), he decided to take legal action so that the format in Spain would be broadcast without

, using the same argument of Mediaset: the

plus

model (formerly

,

is not owned by ITV Studios.

The main argument of Atresmedia and ITV Studios is precisely the previous sentence of the Spanish Supreme Court against Mediaset of that 2019: El

with

de ITV is an indivisible format.

That is why MC&F has decided to claim Atresmedia, with which there is no legal precedent in its favor, instead of ITV, which the Supreme Court has already agreed with Mediaset in this same matter regarding the indivisibility or not of the format. hybrid.

Roberto Leal, in 'Pasapalabra'.

And what happens in the rest of the countries with 'El Rosco'?

hybrid model

and currently broadcast it that way, but the Dutch company that claims to be the owner of

prefers to focus its demand on the Spanish market.

In case of achieving a judicial victory, it will set a legal precedent with which perhaps to claim its rights in other countries that broadcast

.

Italy, although it was the first to offer the hybrid format, is not among those countries that may have a conflict in the future, because

has not been broadcast on their television for years.

The current French version,

, has a final test with a donut shared between the two finalists.

They both answer and add the correct answers to their particular marker.

But, in principle, there seems to be no legal conflict in this case.

How important is 'El Rosco' in the audiences of Antena 3?

The content immediately prior to the broadcast of the news is usually relevant in the programming strategies of the channels.

A clear example of this is the audience that Pedro Piqueras has lost on Telecinco since it arrived just after the soap opera

, a space that does not reach a 7% share of the screen.

Vicente Vallés has been the leader of the nightly news on Antena 3 since long before he had

as the opening act, but his presence has made his data improve and widen his distance from the competition.

Like

he does with the midday newscasts.

With the arrival of the contest, Antena 3 began to reconquer the afternoons.

For more than a decade, they had been the absolute domain of

, but the success of

and the Turkish telenovela

reversed the trend and helped Antena 3 turn the tables.

The Atresmedia channel has been winning the audience war against Telecinco for a year, being the most watched television in Spain.

It is with the broadcast of the contest that Antena 3 begins

its daily audiences, which is followed by two other leading spaces in its slot, the news and

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