Manuel Polanco is emerging as a replacement for Alejandro Echevarría in the presidency of UTECA

Tomorrow, the 12th, the Union of Associated Commercial Televisions (UTECA) celebrates its Annual Conference at a time of full transition since Alejandro Echevarría will leave the presidency this month and the employers' association intends to end the rotating presidency by electing by consensus a weighty professional. Among the first names being considered is Manuel Polanco.

Tomorrow, Thursday, November 12, the Union of Associated Commercial Televisions (UTECA) will celebrate its traditional Annual Conference in Madrid. This year, the event attended by the Vice President of the Government, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, will be especially transcendental to take the pulse of the directors of the private companies at a crucial moment with the General Audiovisual Law in parliamentary process and with the firm intention on the part of the employers to end the rotating presidency in the association.

Alejandro Echevarría will leave the presidency this month, so an internal debate has been opened within UTECA about the possibility of ending the rotating shift imposed since its foundation, thus preventing some of the association's oldest, but smaller, television stations such as Net Tv (Vocento) and Veo Tv (Editorial Unit) from taking office. The strong core of UTECA formed by Alejandro Echevarría, Paolo Vasile, José Manuel Lara, Maurizio Carlotti and José Miguel Contreras seems to agree on the need to now look for a professional with the power of dialogue who is capable of carrying the voice of the employers' association in a complex moment both from the point of view of politics, with the Audiovisual Law in parliamentary process awaiting amendments, and from the market.

Although at this moment many names are being considered from UTECA, it is the general director of the Audiovisual Area of ​​Prisa (company that owns Cuatro), Manuel Polanco, who is emerging as one of the candidates to occupy this new consensus presidency.

Annual Conference

At the Annual UTECA Conference that will take place tomorrow, the academic director of the CIEC-IESE (University of Navarra), Alfonso Sánchez-Tabernero, will present the book Television in Spain: Report 2009, mientras que el consejero delegado de AEGIS Media Iberia & LatAm, Luis Jiménez, hará público el informe The advertising market and television. Luis Jiménez, Partner at Deloitte, responsible for the Media Industry in Spain and Europe, will announce the I2009 Economic Report on Private Television y III Report on the cost of public television in Spain.

The morning will conclude with the intervention of José Miguel Contreras, CEO of La Sexta and Antonio Fernández-Galiano Campos, CEO of Unidad Editorial, who will talk about the current market situation and the prospects for Spanish audiovisual production after the analogue blackout in March 2010.

The Annual Conference will close with a speech by the current president of UTECA, Alejandro Echevarría and a lunch chaired by the first vice president of the Government, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega.