Manuel Campo Vidal, Jesús Hermida Lifetime Achievement Award from the Television Academy

The Council of the Television Academy has recognized the journalist and communicator with its highest award for a career linked to the television medium.

The Council of the Academy of Television and Audiovisual Sciences and Arts has granted the Jesús Hermida Lifetime Achievement Award, the highest award of the Institution, to the journalist, sociologist and communicator Manuel Campo Vidal in recognition of a career linked to the television medium.

In his more than 40 years of professional career he has been linked to public and private, national and regional television in our country. He presided over the Television Academy for 12 years, promoting its re-foundation and converting it in 2008 into the mediating institution for the recovery of the televised debates between the candidates for the presidency of the Government of Spain.

In previous calls this award, previously called a Whole Life, has been awarded to important figures in the television world such as Jesús Hermida, Miguel de la Quadra Salcedo, Antonio Mercero, Chicho Ibáñez Serrador, Josefina Molina, Matías Prats Sr., José de las Casas, Pedro Amalio López, Emilio Aragón “Miliki”, Rosa María Calaf, Rosa María Mateo, Concha Velasco, José Ángel de la Casa, José María Íñigo, Laura Valenzuela, María Teresa Campos, Mayra Gómez Kemp, Fernando García de la Vega, Paloma Gómez Borrero, Xavier Sardá and Ana Blanco. In its last edition, the Academy recognized Matías Prats with the Jesús Hermida Lifetime Achievement Award.

40 years of professional experience

He has a Doctor in Sociology from the Complutense University of Madrid, a Graduate in Journalism from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and an Industrial Technical Engineer from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia.

Campo Vidal has presented more than 2,000 news programs and programs on Spanish Television and on Antena 3, as well as on Hour 25, on Cadena SER.

He directed the 1992 relaunch of Antena 3 as network director. In 1995 he was appointed vice president. In 1994 he created and presided over the Antena 3 International Channel.

He was co-founder of the global Spanish-language network Telenoticias, later CBS Telenoticias, as well as founder and president of Audiovisual Sport.

As historical milestones in his career, he directed and moderated the first electoral debate on Antena 3 in 1993 between Felipe González and José María Aznar. In 2008, after 15 years without televised debates in Spain, he negotiated, directed and moderated the face-to-face between José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and Mariano Rajoy. The debate organized by the Television Academy is so far the most watched in the history of television in Spain with more than 13 million viewers and a 59.1% share. Subsequently, he directed and moderated the Rajoy-Rubalcaba (2011) and Rajoy-Sánchez (2015) face-to-face from the TV Academy.

He created and directed the series of programs Generation XXI y Dreamers, dedicated to promoting Spanish entrepreneurs on television, broadcast on several regional television stations.

The latest documentary series that 40 Years of Democracy has directed has been broadcast on Canal Historia and La 2 on TVE. Previously he directed documentaries such as Planet Watchers about climate change; Adolfo Suárez, the key to the Bunker; Felipe González, the modernization of Spain; The Dream of Barcelona about emigration to Catalonia, America or Shanghai, about Galician emigration; either The Franco Swamps, among others. His most recent documentaries are related to climate change (Planet Watchers y Towards a green planet, the European Union (A trip to the heart of Europe) and about entrepreneurs in the rural world (I cultivate talent).

He is currently president emeritus of the Academy of Television and Audiovisual Sciences and Arts, an entity of which he was a founding member and which he directed for 12 years, from 2006 to 2018.

In the academic field, he is a speaker at conferences and conferences related to communication. In addition, he chairs the Next Education entity where he directs the communication masters and the Institute of Business Communication (ICE).