Bulls on television, an uncertain change of third

The relationship between the bullfighting festival and television is a love-hate story fraught with controversies between defenders and detractors, with special prominence of politics and the animalist current; passion, first, and warmth and detachment later, ranging from the crowds entranced in front of the television stores by the phenomenon of El Cordobés in the sixties to the veto of TVE since 2016. Movistar took over 30 years ago and has just abandoned it for little-known reasons; And so, while the bullfighting torch is maintained by five regional television stations with good audience results, OneToro has broken into the sector, an American company directed by a German, which intends to take bullfighting images throughout the world. In its recent public presentation, it did not provide the expected confidence, and everything has been left waiting for the next April 9, Resurrection Sunday, Mundotoro TV -that is the chosen commercial brand- to begin its broadcasts in Seville and the uncertainty is cleared up. that persists among fans to this day.

All of this is taking place in a sector in crisis, disunited and unadapted to modern times, beaten from different and varied sides, and which proves incapable of healing the wound from which followers who cast doubt on their future escape each year.

On June 4, it will be seven years since TVE broadcast the last bullfight, in 2016, from Albacete, for the benefit of Asprona. The well-matched marriage between public television and bullfighting broke down suddenly in 2006 when Carmen Caffarel, general director of the public entity at the time, decided to ban bullfights on the small screen. In December 2010, Alberto Oliart, president of the corporation, presented the Style Manual that included bulls in the “violence with animals” section within the “sensitive issues” section, and bullfights were banned on RTVE due to their schedule, generally coinciding with that of special protection for children, an argument that the corporation has defended in recent years to maintain the ban.

Intermarriage

Surprisingly, in February 2012, during the tenure of Leopoldo González Echenique, RTVE removed the reference to violence against animals from the manual and opened the door again for bullfights to return to the small screen. Thus, on September 5 of that year, the cameras went to the Valladolid square to offer all of Spain a bullfight in which El Juli, José María Manzanares and Alejandro Talavante participated, which was seen by 1,157,000 spectators.

The controversy resurfaced again between defenders and detractors, and the economic difficulties of the public entity forced the bullfighters to renounce their image rights and RTVE only assumed the expenses of the technical deployment. The general director recognized before the Control Commission of the Congress the economic, ecological and sociocultural dimension of the bulls, and assumed that each year a small number of festivities would be broadcast, one or two, provided that “the circumstances are given”. It was not exactly like that, because from 2012 to today only four more bullfights have been broadcast: in 2013, from Mérida; two in 2015, from Cáceres and San Sebastián and the aforementioned one from Albacete, in 2016.

In May 2021, RTVE’s Mixed Commission for Parliamentary Control approved bullfighting to return to public television, but the agreement has not been fulfilled. The marriage between state television and bullfighting —very happy in another time, since, between 1998 and 2002, TVE had its own bullfighting channel through Vía Digital— seems definitively broken; and from that union only the weekly program remains Zero Layoutwhich is broadcast on Saturdays at 2, and Clarionon Saturdays and Sundays on Radio 5 of RNE.

But the gap left by RTVE was filled in 1992 by the payment platform Canal Plus —converted into Canal Toros de Movistar as of 2010—, which has been the great broadcaster of the festivities of the main fairs for 30 years. However, on the 23rd the Telefónica screen will fade to black after it has broadcast 84 festivities in 2022.

The reasons for this farewell were explained by the company itself in a brief note: the new market situation and the emergence of new players. The market has certainly changed, and it seems that the number of current subscribers —between 20,000 in the low season and 50,000 during the main fairs, but far from the 100,000 in the past— did not allow for any profitability; and the new actor is OneToro, which has signed for three years with the Madrid, Seville and Valencia markets, at a rate of 3 million euros per season.

The market, the new platform and who knows if some political or ideological reason have led to the withdrawal of Canal Toros, which has plunged the sector into an orphan situation that it hopes to replace with the American company. Meanwhile, four public regional television channels and one private television station keep the bullfighting flag flying high and dedicate a substantial part of their budgets to broadcasting weekly bullfighting festivities and programs.

Castilla la Mancha Media was present at 85 festivities in 2022 and its forecast for this season is to broadcast 70; Canal Sur TV, 32 celebrations last year, and the same number for the present; Telemadrid, 25 festivities broadcast in 2022 and a forecast of 31 for this one, including the 14 bullfights of San Isidro already announced by the president of the Community of Madrid; Canal Extremadura, six celebrations last season and 13 in 2023; and Castilla y León TV —the only private regional broadcaster— broadcast the two finals of the Community Heifers Circuit and is awaiting an agreement between the regional government and the Fundación Toro de Lidia on the heifers competitions for this year.

The TV screen is not black, but discolored. The veto of TVE, sponsored by its leaders, the lukewarmness of some politicians and the open opposition of others, and the sharp criticism of animalists, has undoubtedly influenced a low social consideration of bullfighting.

Movistar’s flight is not good news, and it remains to be seen if OneToro meets expectations. Meanwhile, the autonomous ones remain as the latest from the Philippines in the defense of a cultural heritage that, in fact, is rejected by all those who are called upon to protect it.

You can follow EL PAÍS TELEVISIÓN on Twitter apuntarte here to receive our weekly newsletter.