The new era of innovation in RTVE

Urbano García Alonso, Director of Innovation and Digital of RTVE, addresses in an extensive conversation the present and future of public radio, which will revolve around a transverse strategy that will put the user in the center and in which technological or visual fidelity will not be so relevant.

The pandemia He has marked a before and after in technological innovation. The consolidation of new distribution channels as well as content creation has made the Quality in visual terms You are no longer a priority among television engineering equipment. Two years are a world; Moreover, if in between there has been a Strategy rethinking Following an unpublished situation in our contemporary history.

Los alternative channels of audiovisual content, as well as Vod platforms In all its dimensions, consumed from all kinds of Mobile devices, provide a new pitch. The Television They start a path to become Content generators For all types of audiences and windows, leaving the linear as another window of so many others. On the other hand, the low visual fidelity that drags connections such as videoconferences It seems not to matter to a user accustomed to informing or seeing content from a screen of just 6.5 inches.

Today, innovation efforts go through adapt To this new mentality digital first and in implementing all kinds of Organizational, technical or new business resources. For this, innovation will be an essential tool, either with processes of IA that extend or automate processes; With technology 5G, to offer an ubiquity and speed of unheard of access (and at low cost); or with the platform optimization how RTVE Play, prepared to become authentic axes of the Spanish public and Spanish -speaking media ecosystem. Urban García, Director of Innovation and Digital of RTVE, opens the doors to the philosophy that marks the present and will define the future of our television.

Of television to multimedia factory

Currently, how is RTVE organized in terms of innovation?

Right now, our structure includes a Part of technological innovation that Pere Vila himself directs, and a part of Innovation and digital. Our goal in this second direction is coordinate all innovative processes that occur within the company, guide our Digital transformation and spread a transverse character to the entire organization a Corporate culture change. One of our objectives is to channel our operations towards the new uses and consumption of communication, having To the user in the center of the activity with the digital and the mobile as a nerve.

We seek to internalize the need for transformation that the president himself expressed internally soon to start leading the corporation. I usually say a little joke, what The maximum aspiration of this address is to cease to exist in a short time. That would imply that both innovation and digital are so infiltrated in the organization that it would not be necessary for this transformation to be directed.

What is the diagnosis they have made, in terms of digital transformation, of RTVE?

Starting from the analysis of the media ecosystem in which we are, which is very Voluble, changing and there are obvious paradigm changes Both in production and in audiovisual consumption, we have the need to get a company in this volume to Adapt quickly to the changes that are taking place in the market.

Until now, we have been a Broadcast radio and television company that also penetrated the digital field. Now We have the need for ours core sea digital. Within that activity, the usual television and broadcasting will be included. To do this, we clearly believe in an innovation process that is inside-out: I think they do not innovate or do not innovate the executives allegedly “enlightened”, but the classmates who are fascinated, seduced or motivated by an idea or a project. And that project I think is as simple as Continue to be relevant to Spanish society in general and occupy a different role than we have had so far. That is: go from being a Radiotelevisión Broadcast Company to be a multimedia factory that generates content for all supports, formats, devices, platforms and age groups.

Chasing relevance

What steps should RTVE take to reduce that distance between what is currently the corporation and what should be to "remain relevant" in full digital transformation?

To be able to do this path, the first thing we have to do is Listen to them. Therefore, we launched the “The Great Consultation” campaign, which is not precedent in our country. In any case, we consider that to achieve this relevance it is essential to achieve transversality, which is to be present in all processes and structures, as well as Brink the vertical silos: television, radio and digital/interactive media. In this way, we can inoculate that Innovative and digital gene in any area and scope of the corporation.

One of our main areas of study, analysis and implementation is audience participation to become, truly, into a community. We are at a time when you fight for attention and trust, but also for the loyalty. And we have a problem, and when the public leaves Clan, the audience leaves and does not return to maturity. Now, Our target are all audiences: A audience that is mobile, social and Ubica forces us to have our perception, products and services be mobile, social and ubiquitous.

Has mentioned the term "participation." Does it differentiate it from interaction? Is interaction necessary in an area like television?

At this point, I think we have two things clear. First, what We have to be a 360º media. For us it is very important that the history we handle has a Emotional resonance and that with it we can reach the public through Any platform and language. The Radiotelevisión concept has become obsolete and now we have many windows to offer all kinds of stories. We also have a clear thing: in these circumstances, Only those media that have a permanent, active and direct conversation with the audience will survive to turn it into community. Before, participation was reduced in a person called the RTVE switchboard and expressed their negative or positive opinion about the program that was being issued at that time. Now, via social networks or content creation, the Concept of participation is very broad.

We have had recent examples such as Benidorm Fest. In it, a community we had participated practically numb and that has worked very well on various platforms. We believe a lot in that broad concept that goes from the governance of our environment to the Active participation in content production.

The data as a true audience meter

In this regard, is RTVE considering implementing mechanisms to perform greater control, review or management of the suggestions that can come through social networks?

That's how it is. We are trying deepen that monitoring. We all know that audience data are very in the candlestick and are very controversial because The formula is not found to make a real record of this multimodal hearing that we have today. But the truth is that we are in The data empire.

One way we will have to get direct data from the audience will be through the currently called RTVE Play, a platform that has had a Fast and hurried evolution, but with very good will on the occasion of the past Olympic Games. Our evolution will lead to this platform continuing and that, in a few years, the entire company is working to dump the contents there. With the growing user registration We can have more data with which to make decisions. In the end, data is essential to really know what The Spaniards want, what claim, what do they need and how they want to see their problem reflected in the programming of all our platforms.

Many of the large media groups continue to trust an obsolete system to quantify their audience. How does the relevance of multimodal data defend when much of the industry continues to walk in an opposite direction?

It is very difficult, especially if one is subjected to Metric tyranny That currently exists. In Spain there is what Miguel loved defined as "bad television consciousness." When he asked before in the street surveys which program saw the Spaniards, case everyone answered the documentaries of the 2. It was a lie: if so, the audience rates will be much higher.

We are clear that we are doing Authentic Public Service Contentshow The three doors or The keys of the 21st century. They are necessary content, because to give the public what the public wants You have to give it a lot of what the public needs. That is why we are a public service. But we are also aware that A public service without public is less service. What happens? That everyone is perceiving little by little interest and quality We are looking for these contents, which are not only consumables in the linear television programming. This will cost us, because the audience is lost to jet, but drop by drop is recovered.

I do not speak only about television. To be able to meet our goals, we have to enter other fields in which so far we have not been excessively profuse: we must fully enter the field of podcast, understood beyond what is a radio service to the letter; And you have to enter the generation of content in Twitch or Youtube. In both we have interesting experiences, but we must deepen, because one of the objectives is, logically, approach the young audience.

And I don't say attract, since I think it's a mistake try to attract the audience to something that has never been. There are many house salons where the TV does not exist. You have to look for young people where they are: Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitch… And you have to do it with their own languages and Narrative Formulas. That is a job we have ahead.

Each spectator in place

From what he tells me, it gives the feeling that, in this purpose of finding and communicating with the most digital spectator in his own contexts, he is being chosen to reserve linear programming for another type of audience. Is there a project to channel these digital audiences so that they also have their space and representation on Spanish Television?

In no case do we want to leave our conventional audience behind. What happens is that we cannot limit ourselves to a 60 -year -old audience and rural areas. It is not about treating today as the consumer of tomorrow, but Treat him as today's consumer, right where he is.

Television remains a means of mass consumption and the radio still has its hole. The objective is to diversify in order to arrive and take all windows that we currently have available. But, for this, we have to ask ourselves the big question: What are we? A radiotelevisión that also makes digital? Or a company core digital among whose activities are radio and television? Today, as the market works, We have to be social rather than radio and television.

We do not want to leave any age group behind, but we don't want young people by system to, or even for rebellion, abandon us. We don't even want niches or cells. We understand that The public is absolutely transmedia And he knows how to locate what he wants.

What platforms or technologies are being influenced to get to the place where consumers are?

Currently, we are deepening platforms such as YouTube or Twitch From our new media address. For example, last week we made a program in Twitch That will have a weekly periodicity about Eurovision that managed to reach 150,000 users, which seems to us a very interesting number. Another example is the case of RTVE News in YouTube, which has worked very well as a result of the war period. We also want to advance within Tiktok To know what our role is and how we can get to our audience beyond the use that is made in other media.

These are some of the tools we are working on, although, logically, we are also approaching new technologies and processes that are imposed. For example, we want to use the artificial intelligence. In fact, we are doing many pilot tests and working with many universities in that regard. We are also working with everything that has to do with blockchain and our positioning in the metaverso.

RTVE Play: definitive metaplampaforma?

Returning to RTVE Play, what is the balance they make from RTVE of this launch? How do you plan to continue advancing throughout this year?

Despite its hurried launch, we understand that The public's reaction has been very positive, not only because of the fact that it has been a free platform, but because we We do not look for direct competition with Netflix or Disney type monsters, with billions of dollars of budget. We offer one complementary offer With other values, ranging from our documentary funds to the contributions of our territorial centers, which make us a differential element within this media war.

Currently, we are on a path of Evolutionary development of this platform. We understand that users have needs beyond information, entertainment, fiction or lifestyle. In that sense, the platform will be extended progressively to include concepts that have to do with health, culture or training in digital competences For all ages, especially for the elderly. What we currently know by RTVE Play will be directed towards a metaplataforma in which even There will be the possibility of third parties.

RTVE and Metaverso

Another key that has previously mentioned is to explore the role of RTVE in metovers. How are the first steps of the corporation in this field?

We are currently in an embryonic moment, in the expectation of its development and see What role will it correspond to us. Therefore, I can not deepen excessively either, since it must be taken into account that it will take between a five years and ten years to consolidate. Nevertheless, It should be located.

Should the role of public televisions such as RTVE be integrated into an existing metavers or create an independent and independent universe?

Perhaps, in the face of accessibility by the audience, the road will go through become an entity. Even so, that also makes us have to be there where the citizen is. This forces us to think about How to create and develop new formats or decide where we are. We can even consider integrating the referents of our audiences into our ecosystem: we cannot be away from the current content creators or Streamers Neither deny that reality. We have to be intelligent when integrating into everything we want to do, including the metaverso. Even so, I insist, we are in a very embryonic period.

A new quality concept

Just a few years ago, televisions were immersed in a technological career to capture user attention, advertising terminology such as HD, HDR or 4K. However, these efforts have been extinguished when promoting that technology as value. What has changed?

Let's talk about the concept of quality. I consider that The quality is defined by the receiver of a service, not the issuer. We were accustomed to being the ones we said What was and what was not quality. With the arrival of the pandemic, nature of nature has been given to realities that were unthinkable on television. Introduce an interview by Zoom In a newspaper it was prohibited, and now We take it normally. The public is the one that defines that quality. We, without giving up the highest standards, have to accept what the public indicates from there.

What we have to do now is embrace and accept change. If one of these changes is that the public has assimilated as a good level of quality, without us giving up the search for quality, We have to assume and integrate it. If not, we run the danger that the public opts for other options and that we are like a kind of spiritual reserve of hyperalty quality.

Therefore, does the user determine much of the change at all levels?

What we want to do is put the user in the center. To do this, We have to transform. The media, especially the traditional ones, we have behaved as a dinosaur that sees the meteorite that will end its existence, let's call social networks, internet or platforms. And yet, we have been a type of dinosaur that said: "I am calm because here, by my side, it will not impact." The reality is that it already impacted and that forces us to react very quickly implementing that leadership and Armando a data -based strategy.

What elements do we have to combine in search of transformation? We have already spoken throughout our conversation: agility, management from trust, transversality, collaboration, innovation, and a fundamental term for me: the omnichannel. When people ask me where I work, I mention Pícara "RTVE"And not" Spanish radiotelevision. "For me, Radio and Television concepts are a bit exceeded. Although there are and will exist very strongly, with this statement I want to imply that we have to be much more than the mere concepts of radio and television.

RTVE as a agglutinator of the Spanish audiovisual

We have talked about internal renewal paths within RTVE to favor innovation. However, RTVE has done very interesting tasks collaborating with other agents of the Spanish media ecosystem. At this time that RTVE is claiming its identity and its ability to reach the Spanish population, how do collective initiatives continue to work, such as Lovestv?

One of those points would be our platform, RTVE Play. We who, beyond being the RTVE platform, becomes a reference window in which third parties can enter, especially to the entire Spanish -American field. Somehow, our goal is to be concentrators, fundamentally, of the public sector of the Spanish audiovisual. We claim that role. Last year we reached an agreement with FORCE And we do not rule out that Autonomous channels can enter that metaplatform culture What we are talking about.

Is RTVE currently in effective conversations to make this project a reality?

Yes, because, although we are still in a Evolutionary development period of the platform, we already include that possibility. Not only are we doing technological improvements that have to do with user experience, but we enter a period in which We open our fan and we offer the brand itself, but the possibility that this Platform serves as a launch for many media and Many Spanish content generators in the Latin American market.