Radio y Television de Andalucia (RTVA)

Radio y Televisión de Andalucía is Andalusia’s public broadcaster. It was created by Law 8/1987 of 9 December; Canal Sur Radio began broadcasting in 1988 and Canal Sur Televisión in 1989. Law 18/2007 constituted RTVA as a public business agency with its own legal personality and statutory functional independence. Its radio and television services operate through Canal Sur Radio y Televisión, S.A., a publicly owned subsidiary. Juan de Dios Mellado has been Director General since 2019.

Media assets

Television: Canal Sur Televisión, Andalucía Televisión and the international service Canal Sur Andalucía. Canal Sur 2 Accesible carries an accessible version of Canal Sur Televisión’s programming; it is not an additional independent editorial service.

Radio: Canal Sur Radio, Radio Andalucía Información, Canal Fiesta Radio, Flamenco Radio and Canal Sur Música.

Digital: CanalSur Más, CanalSur Más Audio and canalsur.es.

Ownership and governance

RTVA is a public agency within Andalusia’s institutional administration. The agency does not have corporate share capital. The share capital belongs to its operating subsidiary, Canal Sur Radio y Televisión, S.A., and is held entirely by the Junta de Andalucía through RTVA. Law 18/2007 grants RTVA autonomy in its management, organisation and operation, and functional independence from the regional government and public administrations within its programme contract.

The law names three governing organs: the Board of Directors, the Director General and the Advisory Council. Separately, it guarantees newsroom Professional Councils elected by information staff to defend the principles of the professional statute. The Audience Defender handles complaints and suggestions, while the Consejo Audiovisual de Andalucía (CAA) provides external audiovisual oversight.

The Board has nine statutory seats. Parliament elects its members and its president by three-fifths majorities; the regional government formally appoints the members. Parliament elects the Director General by a two-thirds majority on the first ballot or three fifths on a later ballot. The Board and Director General continue in office after their terms end until successors are appointed. Parliament has up to one year from its constitution to make the new selections. The Board’s rules of organisation and functioning govern its proceedings.

The Board was renewed in October 2022, rather than remaining the Board selected under the parliamentary arithmetic of 2019. Rafael Porras García is its president. RTVA’s current transparency listing names seven directors, following Verónica Pérez Fernández’s resignation in February 2025 and Álvaro Zancajo Fenoll’s resignation in July 2026. A separate regional Board page still lists Zancajo, creating a discrepancy between the two official listings. The new Parliament was constituted on 11 June 2026, making the next renewal due under the one-year statutory timetable.

Zancajo’s simultaneous Board membership and communications role for Vox prompted an anti-fraud investigation into a possible incompatibility in 2026.

Source of funding and budget

RTVA’s public-service remit is set out in a 2024–2029 Public Service Charter and a 2024–2026 programme contract. Its operations receive regional public funding alongside commercial income, principally from advertising and content-related activity.

The published 2026 operating forecast for Canal Sur Radio y Televisión, S.A. totals EUR 180,230,188. It includes EUR 163,226,188 in operating transfers from the Junta de Andalucía, or approximately 90.6 per cent, and forecasts EUR 15,356,000 in net turnover. This is the subsidiary’s operating forecast, not RTVA agency’s standalone budget or audited group revenue. RTVA separately publishes a EUR 31,100,460 agency budget for 2026.

The published 2024 consolidated statements record EUR 190.21 million in ordinary income, including EUR 175.17 million in transfers and subsidies recognised in the year, approximately 92.1 per cent. These recorded results and the 2026 forecast use different reporting periods and bases.

In May 2024 the Junta converted an existing EUR 36 million short-term credit into an interest-free loan with a maximum five-year term amid litigation concerning VAT treatment. The transaction was a refinancing of existing credit, rather than a fresh EUR 36 million payment at that date. The 2024 statements also describe VAT proceedings that remained unresolved after year-end.

Editorial independence

Law 18/2007 requires objective, truthful, impartial, independent, plural and neutral information. RTVA’s professional statute provides for journalist-elected councils, and the CAA exercises external oversight. These are substantive safeguards, although their existence does not by itself establish that editorial decisions are free from political influence.

RTVA’s Professional Council has repeatedly alleged interference by news management. In October 2024 it described management intervention in the programme Los Reporteros, including changes to an already prepared report. Its analysis of the Noticias 1 and Noticias 2 bulletins from October 2024 to March 2025 identified 470 instances it regarded as breaches of journalistic standards. An independent El País examination of more than 45 hours of Canal Sur TV news across a sample of 30 days also found a recurring favourable treatment of the PP-led regional government relative to the national government and the PSOE. Mellado rejected the allegation of political bias and defended editorial decisions as journalistic judgments.

The Council criticised coverage of failures in Andalusia’s breast-cancer screening programme. It calculated that Canal Sur TV first reported the issue more than 72 hours after it became public and said affected women received much less speaking time than regional government representatives in the initial coverage it analysed. Mellado disputed both the alleged delay and the Council’s airtime methodology, reporting substantially more coverage than the Council had counted. The conflicting figures have not been resolved in the sources reviewed.

The previous Professional Council’s mandate expired in April 2025. Its members continued their work while awaiting an election, then resigned in October after a new vote had not been called within the period specified by the professional statute. A new council was constituted in April 2026. In July it reported unequal treatment of corruption cases in June news bulletins, citing differences in airtime, context and use of archive material according to the political figures involved.

The CAA reached a different conclusion in Decision 06/2026. Its study of 2025 news speaking time found the distribution among political formations generally balanced in light of their representation and concluded that pluralism principles had generally been respected. The CAA describes its method as quantitative rather than qualitative. Two councillors signed a dissenting opinion, arguing that speaking-time measurements cannot establish neutrality without examining omissions, prominence and tone; a third councillor who missed the meeting endorsed their reasoning. The decision does not assess the Council’s June 2026 examples.

AI and digital policy

RTVA uses generative AI in historical and cultural material produced for news-related programming. A Canal Sur project recreated Blas Infante from archival photographs and generated historical settings for an Andalusia Day 2026 special. The project’s published account describes editorial supervision and historical documentation; the awards jury also noted that Canal Sur identified AI-generated parts of the material. TM Broadcast announced an award for the project in June 2026; its presentation ceremony was scheduled for 29 October 2026. CanalSur Más received a separate special mention in the awards’ streaming-platform category.

No publicly accessible RTVA editorial policy setting general rules for generative AI was identified in the reviewed materials. The documented supervision and on-air identification of this project do, however, establish practices for that production.

Classification rationale

RTVA remains classified State-Controlled (SC).

The Junta de Andalucía owns its operating subsidiary and supplies the overwhelming majority of its planned operating income. Parliament elects the Director General and Board by reinforced majorities; the law also guarantees RTVA functional independence, professional representation and external audiovisual oversight. These ownership, funding and appointment arrangements establish potential institutional influence but do not, on their own, demonstrate control of news content.

The editorial basis for SC is the repeated, specific evidence concerning news selection, prominence and intervention by RTVA management: the Professional Council’s reports across successive periods, its account of changes to Los Reporteros, and the independent examination of a substantial sample of television news. The CAA’s favourable assessment of 2025 speaking time is material contrary evidence, with a scope distinct from those findings; its published dissent expressly challenges the sufficiency of speaking time as a measure of neutrality. The record supports an assessment of sustained political influence over editorial practice. It does not establish that the Junta directly ordered particular stories or approved individual bulletins.

September 2026