Transmedia Critical| Cross-Media Production in Spain's Public Broadcast RTVE: Innovation, Promotion and Audience Loyalty Strategies

Abstract

Multiplatform content broadcasts are one way of securing the position of public-service broadcasting in a competitive and changing market. This research focuses on the cross-media fiction series Águila Roja (Red Eagle) and Isabel, produced by Globomedia and Diagonal TV for Radio Televisión Española (RTVE), the Spanish radio and television corporation. RTVE is a public-service broadcaster that has recently undergone a significant reconversion as a consequence of the recession and a new funding system based exclusively on financial contributions from the state, with a ban on paid advertising, which had been permitted in the past. We examine the way this organization creates productions for multiple platforms and the innovation strategies that support these processes. Using a comparative case study approach based on the actor-network theory, we found a strong 360-degree cross-media production logic in RTVE’s fiction series. However, a detailed analysis reveals difficulties and contradictions regarding the efficacious use of each of the technological platforms available as well as limitations on the actions undertaken in the social media.