1,102,500 euros is the amount that RTVE received for the World Cup in Qatar, as revealed by the interim president of the corporation, Elena Sánchez, in response to a parliamentary question from Vox. Sánchez not only revealed the amount entered but also justified it with the restrictions of the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC) to sell advertising with advertisers other than sponsors and other commercial affiliates of Fifa.
“This restriction has limited the obtaining of greater income from the commercial exploitation of the retransmissions of these meetings,” answered Elena Sánchez. The data is surprising because of the 32 million that RTVE paid Mediapro for the rights to the World Cup in Qatar, only a little more than one million euros have come in, corresponding to three Fifa affiliates.
In this way, RTVE complied with the CNMC regulations imposed last November, by which the public entity could not sell advertising to sponsors other than Fifa. “The broadcast by RTVE of general advertising is not covered by the exception provided for in the regulations that regulate the financing of the Corporation,” the resolution states.
The CNMC then reported that RTVE would have to limit its commercial offer for the World Cup to advertisers strictly referring to sponsors and other commercial affiliates of Fifa, arguing that “in the bidding rules and in the contract signed between Mediapro and RTVE only imposes an obligation on RTVE to offer the preferential possibility of advertising and having a presence in the World Cup broadcasts to Fifa’s commercial affiliates, but not to other advertisers or brands.”
RTVE revealed last February the cost of the Qatar Soccer World Cup for the Corporation. The total cost of broadcasting the Qatar Soccer World Cup amounted to 37,600,888 euros, of which 35,973,174.68 euros corresponded to to external resources -32 of them to Mediapro for the non-exclusive rights to broadcast 20 matches that were also broadcast on Gol and Movistar- and 1,627,713.44 euros are attributable to the use of internal resources of the corporation itself.
Regarding the breakdown of expenses by technical providers, the largest outlay was for the rental of two mobile units from the company Sociedad Europea Unidad.Móviles S.L., which represented an outlay of 725,000 euros.
By not having advertising, RTVE was already aware that it would not be able to recover the part of the investment. “The income could have been more favorable if the trajectory of the Spanish team had been prolonged and the commercial exploitation of the retransmissions had not been restricted to agreements with the commercial affiliates of the organizer of the event by the CNMC,” said Sánchez, since the amount to enter for this concept was linked to the trajectory of the selection in the competition. When it was eliminated in the quarterfinals against Morocco, the income diminished.
The audience results were not as expected either. The average audience share that the public channel made for the 20 games that were broadcast on La 1 was 37.7% with 5,089,000 viewers, 1.25 points added to the channel’s monthly audience. However, as Elena Sánchez recognized, the objective with the purchase of the rights to the World Cup was not to earn money but to increase audiences so that the public channel would not fall to its annual historical minimum. Thanks to the World Cup they did it.
“We have achieved good audience data and a favorable impact on our brand. The high degree of monitoring and diffusion of RTVE’s digital bets is also noteworthy,” said the interim president, referring to the share and the 12.3 million visitors unique in the digital realm.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
