Government-owned corporation | |
Industry | Mass media |
Genre | Public broadcasting service |
Founded | 1977 |
Founder | Spanish Government |
Headquarters | Pozuelo de Alarcón, Community of Madrid, Spain |
Area served
|
Spain |
Key people
|
Jose Antonio Sánchez, President |
Services | Television, radio, online |
1,200 million € | |
Owner | Government of Spain |
Number of employees
|
6,500 |
Subsidiaries |
Radio Nacional de España Televisión Española |
Website | rtve.es |
The Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española, S.A. ('Spanish Radio and Television Corporation') is the state-owned public corporation that assumed the indirect management of the Spanish public radio and television service formerly called Ente Público Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE Public Entity) in 2007. RTVE is the largest audiovisual group in Spain broadcasting in the Spanish language. Since January 2010 it is financed exclusively by public subsidies.
In the exercise of its public service function, among the obligations of the RTVE Corporation are:
RTVE throughout its history has undergone numerous restructurings and reorganisations, and has assumed numerous identities. The history of RTVE begins in 1937 with the first broadcasts by Radio Nacional de España (RNE—Spanish National Radio) from the city of Salamanca. In these early years, RNE served as a propaganda tool for the Nationalist forces during the Spanish Civil War; it would later be used by Francisco Franco to inform the Spanish public.
Television was officially introduced in Spain in October 1956, and in October 1973 the two broadcasting networks, RNE and Televisión Española (TVE—Spanish Television) were consolidated into the Servicio Público Centralizado RadioTelevisión Española (RTVE Centralised Public Service).
Further consolidations followed in 1977, at which time RTVE became an autonomous organization. In 1979 TVE, RNE were joined by RCE an old radio service which, unlike RNE, could broadcast commercials. In 1980, RTVE was configured, by statute, as a legal public entity with its own jurisdiction. According to RTVE's annual report (2003): "This law arose from the Spanish Constitution and the political pluralism which the constitution asserts as a fundamental value of the rule of law; and in this spirit granted RTVE the right to function as a democratic organization." The former cinema newsreels service NO-DO was merged into RTVE to be dismantled in 1981. Since then, the NO-DO archives are property of RTVE and its conservation is on their hands and Filmoteca Nacional's. In 1989, RCE was dismantled and its radio service was merged into RNE.