Broadcast Programming and Strategies in the Spanish TV Duopoly System: A Comparative Analysis on Atresmedia and Mediaset (2013-2019)

Abstract

Over the last decade, the private television market in Spain has gone through a paradigmatic model of duopoly between two large corporations, Atresmedia and Mediaset, both forged out of two major mergers: that of Telecinco with Cuatro, and that of Antena 3 with La Sexta. We intended to analyze the change that the private television sector has undergone in our country since that double merger and how the content and audiences of the four channels have evolved. We resorted to a methodological triangulation of historical-systemic review, content analysis and comparative method. One of the most interesting conclusions drawn from the investigation has been the discovery that Mediaset has turned Cuatro into an almost mimetic channel and subsidiary of Telecinco, while Atresmedia has largely respected the differentiation of its two main channels: Antena 3 and La Sexta TV.