The president of RTVE justifies having lost a million euros for broadcasting his programme after 'La revuelta' by using "the rigidities of the contract" with the Lottery

The La Revuelta programme was the protagonist of the most tense moments of the parliamentary control session of the president of RTVE in the Joint Congress-Senate Commission on Tuesday. The popular deputies have accused José Pablo López of losing income worth one million euros by repeatedly failing to comply with the contract between the corporation and Loterías y Apuestas del Estado last year. The reason for the breach was broadcasting on about twenty occasions outside the scheduled time the space dedicated to the results of the daily draws, coinciding with the programme presented by David Broncano on La 1. López has stated in this regard that "the rigidities inherent to administrative contracting" have been the reason that the corporation received 12,509,955 euros from Loterías in 2024, instead of the 13,535,280 that all the broadcasts in the time slot prior to prime time represented (1,025,325 euros less than expected). He also argued that his investment in Broncano “is worth more than the 14 million per season” that the corporation pays and “any network would take him if they could.”

Sources from the corporation explain that, in effect, since the beginning of the broadcasts of La Revuelta last September, when Concepción Cascajosa was still president of RTVE - López's predecessor until her replacement at the end of the year -, they tried to protect as much as possible the commitment to Broncano in the midst of the ratings war for the time slot before prime time . And thus, until its current integration into the same program, there were delays in the broadcast of the space dedicated to Loterías during various days. According to the count made by RTVE, these delays in the broadcast and failure to comply with the scheduled schedule occurred on up to 23 days, spread between September and December of last year.

The current president of the corporation attributes these breaches to contractual “rigidities”, which according to him have been resolved in the new agreement reached this year between both public companies while he was already in office. The penalty for delaying the broadcast of said space began, according to the contract in force until the end of last year, after 30 minutes. And it did not operate in a shorter interval if there was a justified cause, such as the retransmission of elections, electoral spaces or important sporting events. The amount of the penalty for delays in the broadcast reached 100% of the cost of the program, and in the case of total cancellation without notice of at least 48 hours the amount rose to 200% of said cost. López's justification on Tuesday in the Senate for considering these conditions "rigid" was not enough for PP deputy Ángel Ibáñez, who proclaimed the old legal adage about contracts - "they are there to be fulfilled" - and stated that in this case "they have been knowingly breached."

The PP deputy Ibáñez asked López if he was committed to carrying out an investigation into the matter and making it public, while the president of RTVE clarified that there is an internal report in progress requested by a councillor of the corporation appointed at the proposal of his party. “We are studying all the questions you raise and they coincide with those of the councillor who requested the report,” López added. And then, in response to the senator Cristina Díaz, also from the PP, he raised his eyes and puffed out his chest for Broncano’s programme: López stated that “it is worth more” than the 14 million euros per season of his contract “and any channel would take La Revuelta if they could” . But the tension in the Clara Campoamor room of the Senate over this television gamble by López, which cost him his position as director of content at RTVE during its turbulent negotiations , was not going to end there.

The PP deputy Ana Martínez Labella used data on the beginning of drug, alcohol and tobacco consumption among young Spaniards to ask López if he believes that jokes about drugs on Spanish Television contribute to public service. The respondent replied that the deputy had questioned him in a generic way and had not mentioned “the monster” when asking her question. And she reminded him of the agreement reached by the creators of 'La Revuelta' last September with the Ombudsman of the Audience of RTVE to “limit the use of jokes and word games as a trivialisation or incitement to drug consumption”. López has affirmed that the commitment “is being fulfilled, and if it ever coincides with the protected time slot, a whistle is applied during the broadcast of the programme”. And he concluded by praising Broncano “for having admitted not even drinking alcohol”, as well as praising the fact that the broadcast of the last New Year's Eve chimes that Broncano presented together with Lalachús on La 1 “were the first in which non-alcoholic champagne was drunk”.