Ana Rosa Quintana is the clear winner of the battle that has developed in the corridors and offices of Mediaset in recent months. On Monday it was made official that the presenter will replace Sálvame, which stops airing in the afternoons and weekends of Telecinco from June 16. In addition, she will continue to be temporarily linked to the morning slot that bears her name, where she will take charge of the political section, at least until the elections. The movement configures a new grid in Telecinco in which Ana Rosa Quintana and her producer, Unicorn Content, give a blow of hand and occupy the gap left by the end of the program presented by Jorge Javier Vázquez and produced by La Fábrica de la Tele after 14 years on the air. That move also has profound business and political implications. Official sources say that Ana Rosa's producer has not yet defined the program and that is why they still cannot specify what the current load will be. However, the changes have generated concern in the Government and in leftist formations, which interpret that it is a movement more political than business in a year of autonomic, municipal and general elections.
Founded in 2018, Unicorn Content (chaired by Quintana and with Xelo Montesinos as executive director) closed the year 2022 as the company that produced the most broadcast hours in the main generalist channels (La 1, Antena 3, Cuatro, Telecinco and laSexta), with 21.5% of the total time: one in five minutes of television in Spain. In addition to the current affairs spaces of Telecinco and Cuatro (El programa de Ana Rosa, Ya es mediodía, Fiesta or En el punto de mira) they have also produced for the regional ones (Telemadrid, ETB and Canal Sur) and even together with platforms such as HBO (Dolores. The truth about the Wanninkhof case) or Prime Video.
With 33% of the capital in the hands of Mediaset (the same percentage they control in La Fábrica de la Tele or Mandarina), the company had at the end of 2021, the last year recorded in the commercial registry, 336 employees, a net worth of more than 11 million euros and a sales figure of just over 30.5 million. Profit after tax was €3.04 million.
Joaquín Prat with several collaborators of "Ya es mediodía", in Telecinco.INMA FLORES
The movement has, however, a broader journey and is inserted within the changes in Mediaset Spain, first with the departure of Paolo Vasile at the end of 2022, after 23 years at the head of the company (time in which the group earned 3,700 million with the model imposed by the Italian executive), and then with the arrival of Borja Prado at the top after 17 years as a director. Prado has proposed to change the course of the media group since, in his opinion, a "red line" was crossed with the production of the documentary Save the King (broadcast on HBO, but made by a company in which Mediaset participated, Mandarina). This docuseries about Juan Carlos I portrays the dangerous friendships of the king emeritus and how he amassed his fortune and revealed unpublished recordings with his lovers where the monarch talks about former presidents González and Aznar. Prado has imposed on the presenters of programs that are not current affairs that they cannot talk about politics.
In addition, it has consummated the merger with Media For Europe, which has ceased to be a Spanish company. It is a conglomerate controlled by the Berlusconi family (49.68%) and Vivendi (24.03%) and based in Amsterdam. Of the 4,861 employees that the group has, 1,537 correspond to its Spanish branch (formerly Mediaset España). With this operation, which also includes the absorption of the German ProSieben, Media For Europe aims to gain muscle to compete with the platforms.
According to a Mediaset spokeswoman, the rest of La Fábrica's programs, such as Chester or Todo es mentira, will continue on the air, although the cancellation of Sálvame represents a very hard blow for the producer, which could be forced to end up presenting a file of employment regulation (ERE). The differences of the Sálvame team with the chain come from afar, although they have sharpened since the change of direction of Mediaset. Jorge Javier Vázquez himself has declared that his disagreement with the direction of Telecinco, still in the time of Vasile, was as a result of qualifying the program as a space "of reds and faggots".
Policy implications
The political implications of this shareholder movement have been forged in several chapters and are increasingly evident. At the beginning of the year, Mediaset modified its code of ethics with a series of clauses that seemed written specifically for Sálvame, such as the one that prevents presenters and collaborators of entertainment programs from making political comments. The text, however, left out "those programs that have a specific section of current political affairs [such as that of Ana Rosa Quintana]." Jorge Javier Vázquez has never, for years, hidden his progressive preferences and has expressed them publicly without major problems during Vasile's mandate. He attended on April 2 the official presentation of Yolanda Díaz as a candidate for the presidency of the Government. And he has supported PSOE leader Pedro Sánchez on several occasions.
On the contrary, Ana Rosa Quintana is today for La Moncloa a reference of the hardest media opposition against the Executive. "Now we will have attacks morning, noon and night," says a member of the government ironically. In any case, La Moncloa has not made any public comment on a change that they believe affects them politically, but that falls within the legitimate decision-making space of a private company. On the other hand, sources around Sumar, Yolanda Díaz's platform, regret Mediaset's decision: "It is always important to have references in the media with such massive audiences. Presenters like Jorge Javier have recently made important speeches against sexist violence, against homophobia, classism or racism before millions of people." Harder are the statements of sources who have lived the process from within and who say that this change "only confirms that in Mediaset, the right and the extreme right have already won the elections."
Before autumn arrives and the earthquake begins in the programming of the first Mediaset chain, the gap left by Sálvame will be occupied in summer Así es la vida, afternoon program with Sandra Barneda —who has skyrocketed her popularity in the group after presenting La isla de las tentaciones— at the front and produced by Cuarzo. Just three months before the general election.
The end of the program presented by Jorge Javier Vázquez has been abrupt. The proof that relations were no longer very fluid is that all the workers of the program, heads of La Fábrica de la Tele included, learned of the news through the leak to the press and not through any official channel. In a statement issued on Monday, the producer thanked Mediaset Spain "for having opted for a format as innovative as Sálvame during these 14 years. The program says goodbye as a leader, with the enormous affection of millions of viewers, and with a talented and brilliant team in front of and behind the camera."
Ana Rosa reached large audiences in the afternoon slot in the nineties, on Antena 3. First in his heart program Extra rosa, which he presented with Rosa Villacastín between 1997 and 1998, and then with his own magacine, Sabor a ti, which was on the air from 1998 to 2004, the year that meant his jump to the mornings of Telecinco. 18 years later, it dominates the grid and stands as Mediaset's great bet for its remodeling at a time with much at stake in the media and politically.
Free way for new producers
The end of the Vasile era in Mediaset has also meant the end of several vetoes to certain producers who have already moved tab to recover the lost ground. These are the main movements.
Sequoia
Sources of Secuoya Studios (Grupo Secuoya) perceive an evident change in the new direction of the chain and claim to have collaborated more with Mediaset in three months than in the last 10 years. They have been able to propose all kinds of formats and hope that some of these projects will be launched by the new Mediaset team, they say. The content studio is motivated by this new stage and considers that there is a before and after in the relationship with the audiovisual group.
Shine Iberia
The producer of MasterChef returns to Mediaset after several years with Me resbala, a television format that now returns to television with Lara Álvarez at the helm after having premiered a few years ago on Antena 3. In this contest, a group of well-known Spanish comedians participate in challenges in which their ability to improvise and their comic vis are tested with different tests and challenges.
Gestmusic Gestmusic
made The Wall with Carlos Sobera in 2017, without much success. Those responsible, they comment to this newspaper, do not feel that there has been a veto with them, although Vasile has had a preference in these years for projects born within their own producers. Gestmusic assures EL PAÍS that it has held meetings normally with the communication group in all these years and that its proposals "have not taken shape", while pointing out that it has not yet put new proposals on the table to Mediaset.
Boomerang TV Boomerang TV
stopped collaborating with Mediaset the day La voz jumped from Telecinco to Antena 3 and did so successfully. But, sources from the production company confirm to EL PAÍS, since the change of directive and the departure of Vasile, they have already resumed contact, have held several meetings "both for possible entertainment and fiction projects" still to be specified and define the relationship with the group as "total openness".
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