Ens Public de Radiotelevisio de les Illes Baleares (EPRTVIB)
Ens Públic de Radiotelevisió de les Illes Balears (EPRTVIB) is a public broadcaster established in 2004. It operates a television division, which runs the channels IB3 Televisió and IB3 Sat, as well as a radio broadcaster, IB3 Ràdio. It covers the Balearic Islands, a Spanish region.
Media assets
Television: IB3 (HD)
Radio: IB3 Ràdio
State Media Matrix Typology
Ownership and governance
EPRTVIB was established through Law No. 15 of 2010 as a public company owned by the local government in the Balearic Islands. The station’s highest governing body is the Board of Directors, which is comprised of the Director General and nine other members. They are all elected by the regional Parliament in the Balearic Islands, and the Director General is appointed directly by the Parliament.
The Popular Party (PP), with the support of Vox, has sought to tighten its control over the station, mirroring actions taken with the public broadcaster in the Madrid region. Following the political shift, the regional authorities aimed to replace the director of EPRTVIB, Andreu Manresa, whose term had been extended in March 2022. Manresa resigned in September 2023, and in November 2023, Albert Salas was appointed as the new director, a proposal put forward by the PP. Salas’s appointment was met with more political consensus, as it garnered votes from the PP and Vox, as well as Més per Mallorca and Més per Menorca, with the commitment to maintain Catalan as the working language. However, Salas’s tenure was brief, as he formally resigned in February 2025. On April 8, 2025, the Parliament appointed Josep Maria Codony as the new Director General with the votes of the PP and Vox. Codony previously held the position from late 2014 to late 2015.
Source of funding and budget
EPRTVIB receives funding from both state and commercial sources. In 2024, the broadcaster operated with a budget of over €41 million, a significant increase from its 2023 budget of €38.1 million. Most of this funding comes from a state subsidy.
Editorial independence
The law establishing EPRTVIB guarantees the broadcaster’s editorial independence. A Content and Programming Advisory Council, composed of 15 members appointed by the regional Parliament, assists management with programming suggestions. In the past, there was no evidence of government control over EPRTVIB’s editorial agenda.
In recent years, however, there have been strong indications that the Popular Party (PP) has sought to exert greater influence over the station’s editorial direction. Similar to developments at the public broadcaster in the Madrid region, the PP government in the Balearic Islands has been preparing legal changes aimed at tightening its control over EPRTVIB.
Shifts in appointments to EPRTVIB’s governing bodies reflect this growing political influence (see Ownership and governance above). A content analysis conducted by the Media and Journalism Research Center in April 2024 found no evidence that the broadcaster’s coverage systematically favoured the PP or the regional government. However, a subsequent content analysis carried out between March and May 2025 identified a clear slant towards more favourable coverage of the PP. As a result, the project’s evaluation panel downgraded EPRTVIB in 2025 to the State Controlled (SC) category in the State Media Matrix typology—a designation that signals the highest level of government control.
August 2025