Journalist José Pablo López, new president of RTVE

This Thursday, November 28, the Plenary Session of the Congress of Deputies elected Malaga journalist José Pablo López as the new president of RTVE. She replaces Concepción Cascajosa, interim president of the Corporation since last March.

The appointment took place in a second vote after having reached an absolute majority with 178 votes in favor (the deputies of PSOE, Sumar, ERC, Junts, PNV and Podemos). Last Tuesday the candidate failed to obtain the necessary two-thirds majority since the result was 176 in favor and one blank. In both cases, the PP and Vox deputies did not participate in the vote.

The inauguration of José Pablo López will take place next week in Congress, on Monday, December 2, in an event in which the other 14 RTVE directors will also take office.

The Plenary of Congress elected November 14 candidates for the Board of Directors, in the second round, with the support of the absolute majority of the Chamber, to José Pablo López, Miquel Calçada, Esther de la Mata, Mercedes de Pablos, Rosa León, Teresa Martín, Mariano Muniesa, Angélica Rubio, María Solana, Sergi Sol and Marta Ribas.

The procedure continued in the Senate, which elected on November 21, also in the second round and by absolute majority, the other four members of the Council, Eladio Jareño, Rubén Moreno, Ignacio Ruiz Jarabo and Marina Vila.

Finally, from among the 15 councilors elected by the Cortes Generales, Congress has appointed José Pablo López as the new president of RTVE this Thursday.

Almost two decades of experience

Graduated in Journalism from the San Pablo CEU University and in Law from the Complutense University of Madrid, José Pablo López Sánchez (Sayalonga, Málaga, 1977) has almost two decades of experience in the executive and legal management of different television and radio networks, public and private.

From April 2022 until last March it was director of General Contents of RTVE, with transversal powers over all non-news content areas of the Corporation, including TVE, RNE and RTVE Play.

In addition, he was responsible for the animation, fiction and documentary adjudication tables and for coordinating the celebration of the Benidorm Fest 2023 and 2024 editions, as well as RTVE's participation in Eurovision and Junior Eurovision those years.

Among the main milestones of his management, the La1 audience recovery with the restructuring of the morning The Time of 1 and the premiere of Mornings in the area of ​​Magazines and News; and the relaunch of the series area with projects such as The Promise, The Modern, o The Lawyers.

But perhaps its strongest bet was the revolution in La1's access prime with the arrival of The Revolt. It was precisely his effort to hire David Broncano on RTVE, which precipitated his departure in the face of fierce opposition from the then interim president of the Corporation, Elena Sánchez. Finally, on March 26, the Board of Directors dismissed López as Content Director in a tense meeting in which Elena Sánchez's confidence was also withdrawn, giving rise to one of the directors, Concepción Cascajosa, taking over as interim president.

Previously and for four years he was general director of Telemadrid (2017-2021), chosen through public competition by the company's Board of Directors and ratified by the Madrid Assembly without any vote against. He was also for six years the head of TV is on (2010-2016), as well as director of the legal department and deputy to the general management of LaSexta (2005-2010).

On November 5, José Pablo López presented before the Appointments Commission of the Chamber your objectives for RTVE, highlighting "the commitment to the construction of an RTVE that is relevant. RTVE must be perceived as reliable, but not only, not only, let us not fall into the trap of those who believe that the quality of the public service is greater the lower its impact. The public service without public is not viable, it is the greatest threat to its own continuity. Let us avoid one of the greatest risks that currently exist, which is the risk of irrelevance. We must be a reference without necessarily confusing that term with that of leadership to any price.”