Every year, when the season finales approach, the television market is always moving. The occasional offer, the occasional surprise signing, changes to the grid, new programs… It’s the usual thing and it always happens. However, the coming season, which will begin next September, has opened a struggle between the two main chains, Atresmedia and Mediaset, which, according to various sources, “is being fierce”.
Everything starts from a moment: the definitive cancellation of Sálvame and the decision of the Mediaset leadership to put the afternoon in the hands of one of its highest references and greatest generator of audiences: Ana Rosa Quintana. Since this newspaper reported exclusively on the end of Sálvame, the rumors about the future of the collaborators, about the program that Ana Rosa is already preparing, TardeAR, and about the rest of the changes that the CEO of Mediaset is carrying out, Alessandro Salem, have been a constant.
The afternoons with Ana Rosa Quintana in charge have two clear objectives: to recover the leadership that Sálvame once had and that is now in the hands of Sonsoles Ónega and its Y now Sonsoles and, on the other, to make tangible that change in trend that has been essential for Salem since his arrival. The commitment to Ana Rosa Quintana and her producer Unicorn Content, as well as the request to the latter to leave the mornings, where it is the leader, and return to the front of an evening program “has generated a lot of nervousness in the competition”, affirm several voices.
The delivery of Telecinco afternoons to Ana Rosa has generated a lot of nervousness
A nervousness that, according to different sources have explained to this newspaper, “is causing a scandalous avalanche of offers by Atresmedia to collaborators, editors and different Mediaset profiles”. At the moment, according to different sources have assured this newspaper, Atresmedia has tried to sign more than 20 Unicorn Content workers, of which it has only managed to take three collaborators -Cruz Morcillo, Paloma García Pelayo and Beatriz Cortázar-, two editors and a graphic artist.
Apparently, according to sources familiar with the negotiations, the offers that have been made “are being exorbitant.” These sources speak of chain contracts, which are rarely carried out with collaborators, as well as conditions “very difficult to match and to reject.”
However, other voices speak of “security” and affirm that the people who are leaving Mediaset are doing so to “ensure a future in the midst of the changes that are taking place at Mediaset and, in particular, at Telecinco”. According to sources in the sector, Telecinco’s audience data “is generating a lot of insecurity, which has caused many to test the market and seek to ensure their future in the leading Spanish television group for two seasons.”
These sources speak of “economic stability” with year-long contracts to collaborate not only on a specific program but where their presence is required on both Antena 3 and laSexta. Other sources speak of contracts for 5 years and “exorbitant amounts of money.”
Some offers that many describe as “something unheard of” in the television transfer market. “Something like this has never been experienced with so many people and in this way,” they affirm in reference to the offers that are being made, in many cases “unattainable” to retain talent. In fact, various sources reveal that not only is Atresmedia testing Mediaset faces, but also “RTVE has entered the game”.
The curious thing is that almost all the signing attempts are directed towards the production company run by Ana Rosa Quintana and Xelo Montesinos. In fact, the programs of this production company are, together with Survivors, the audience leaders of Telecinco and its slots. It is true that for Unicorn Content it is not the first time that it has had to suffer the loss of important collaborators. Unicorn is a production company that bets very strongly on its own talent. as this newspaper was able to verify after spending 24 hours with Ana Rosa Quintana.
The essence of his production company is to give opportunities to his team. Thus, for example, the current director of El Programa de Ana Rosa, Óscar de la Fuente, began as an editorial assistant at Unicorn Content and is now in charge of the leading morning program. The same has happened with editors and editors to whom the management of the production company wanted to give an opportunity and who are now fixed on the small screen every morning. Not to mention the star collaborators who, after training and preparing at Unicorn Content, were later recruited when they were already established television stars: Nacho Abad, Belén Esteban, even Sonsoles Ónega, the great signing of Atresmedia last season.
Telecinco’s data has generated a lot of insecurity, which has led many to seek stability
History, therefore, has repeated itself. The first was Beatriz Cortázar, one of the leading journalists in the social chronicle, who last week left the ship captained by Ana Rosa Quintana after 16 years. Obviously, Cortázar’s departure has not been received with joy, but she “has not done anything broken either,” several sources say. In fact, these sources say that “if all the people that Atresmedia has tried to sign had left, there would be a problem, but only six will not change anything.”
It is clear that the signing of Cortázar responds to an idea, that the journalist can be present in several of the Antena 3 and la Sexta programs in view of the changes that are being prepared for next season. For example, in the most social part of Espejo Público, which is expected to be given more weight; on specific days in Y ahora Sonsoles; or in the Saturday version of Más Vale Tarde, which will start in September, and in which it will seek to give more space to content in which Cortázar is a specialist.
The second signing, Cruz Morcillo, aims to bet on events. Morcillo, whom Ana Rosa Quintana signed for her program due to her experience in front of the black chronicle on ABC, is one of the most expert television faces in this content.
And, the third, although, apparently it will not be the last, Paloma García Pelayo, journalist of the social chronicle linked to Ana Rosa Quintana for 18 years and who has decided to make the leap to the competition. In fact, Atresmedia’s objective, in addition to reinforcing the social and heartfelt part of the last slot of Susanna Griso’s program, is for Y ahora Sonsoles to battle Ana Rosa Quintana’s TardeAR, with whom it will predictably coincide in the afternoons, with more familiar faces than those of today and with important collaborators.
For now, all the signings have been from Atresmedia to Mediaset and various sources say that the usual thing is that during the summer season “some other offer is made to editors or reporters whose signing serves to give fresh air to the new season”. At the moment, no reverse signing has transpired, not even for the programs that have been released on Mediaset -such as, for example, Así es la vida, the substitute for Sálvamen- nor for those that are going to be released in summer- , although Atresmedia workers affirm that “the cane has been thrown at many”.
As EL MUNDO has been able to confirm, the group chaired by Borja Prado has indeed tried to kick off the season with a “scandalous” offer to Vicente Vallés himself. “It is not explained how he could reject it,” say people familiar with the negotiation.
These sources have revealed that Mediaset offered Vicente Vallés, leader of the nightly news on Antena 3, the direction of the Telecinco news. Vallés listened to the offer, but opted for the stability that comes with presenting the most watched news program on television in Spain.
What seems clear is that this give and take of signings, of trials, of chain changes and of “fierce offers” is not going to end. While Unicorn Content and Cuarzo, the two producers that currently monopolize the Mediaset grill, are looking for new faces to completely break with the Sálvame era -Belinda Washington, Cristina Rodríguez, Ken Appledorn…-, on the other side sounds the possibility of testing out such well-known faces such as Gema López or Chelo García Cortés, who already collaborated on the Bárbara Rey documentary, La vida Bárbara, and who, even coming from the Sálvame universe, would fit in with the idea that Atresmedia has for the season coming. Will Mediaset present a battle?
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