• Television Pedro Piqueras takes over from Carlos Franganillo: "Getting closer to the truth is a heroic task"
  • This is how the signing of Carlos Franganillo by Mediaset was forged

Three weeks ago, on the set where the Telecinco news programs were made, there was absolutely nothing but empty walls, cables on the floor and ladders. Last Monday, the entire editorial staff and the entire team were already working on a spectacular set, "the most advanced in Spain", made up of three vertical hanging screens that incorporate a motorized lifting mechanism and that allow the projection without any distortion of images recorded with mobile phones to adapt to the languages of the 31st century. together with an immersive screen of 175 linear meters that offer a viewing angle of 210° and add up to a total of <> square meters of set.

Tonight kicks off with Carlos Franganillo at the helm what aims to be the backbone of the new Mediaset and, in particular, of the new Telecinco and that more than a year ago the CEO of the audiovisual group, Alessandro Salem, began to build without haste, but without pause: the news.

Television

Television.

Pedro Piqueras takes over from Carlos Franganillo: "Getting closer to the truth is a heroic task"

  • Written by: ESTHER MUCIENTES Madrid
  • Written by: PHOTOGRAPHS: ALBERTO DI LOLLI

Pedro Piqueras takes over from Carlos Franganillo: "Getting closer to the truth is a heroic task"

Mediaset España's commitment to the news is not to "influence Spanish political life", according to Salem, but to seek "a new way of telling the news". "It is not a problem of influence in Spanish political life, this is not the objective, the objective is to value an important tool of open television which are the news with the aim of speaking to all types of audiences, and another objective is to try to experiment, innovate, that it is a language that can always bring us closer to the public, and that it is a new way of telling the news," says the CEO.

To carry out this brutal change without losing the legacy left by Pedro Piqueras, Salem hired Francisco Moreno, who was the sole administrator of Radiotelevisión Canaria and, probably, together with the signing of Carlos Franganillo, the group's greatest success since the so-called Mediaset revolution began.

And what did Francisco Moreno do? "Maybe they brought the canary for the wiggle," replies the director of Mediaset's News when he hears how many of the faces of the network's news programs, its presenters, describe as "absolute wiggle" what has been done to a department abandoned by the hand of God for too long. This visual description, authored by David Cantero, is the best that could be done to explain what the viewer is going to find in the Telecinco news from tonight and later on.

All the presenters of the new Telecinco Newscasts.MEDIASET

In the first meeting that the heads of the technology and scenography division held with Francisco Moreno before Christmas, there was a phrase that they thought was impossible and that they are now convinced they have made a reality: "We have to do the biggest". It was said by Eugenio Fernández, director of Mediaset's technology division and the man who, together with Mediaset's Engineering, Technical, Production, Scenography and Lighting team, has traveled in a few weeks to countries such as France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, Croatia, the United States and Canada to soak up the innovations that television studios and news sets have there. He brought the best, indeed, "the biggest" and got it up and running in record time.

"What we've done is renew ourselves," Moreno says. "We started from a very positive background, which is the independence and rigor with which the news has always been made on Telecinco, but now with technological tools," he explains. Of course, "the technique may be the most modern in the world, but it does not take precedence over the contents," Moreno insisted. "The facts, what worries the citizens, what is happening is what we are going to dedicate ourselves to, we leave the opinions to others," he said.

Franganillo is of the same opinion, for whomtechnology "if it is not useful, it is useless and this one will be", he says bluntly. "We live in a very complex world where we receive thousands of impulses constantly and the responsibility of journalists is to tell what is happening, but also to put the brakes on (...) We have first-class equipment and we're going to use it well," he repeats like a mantra. Telling what happens is the goal, but above all and above all, telling it well. To be on the street, where the news is, where what worries society happens, to explain it and to do it using all possible languages, but "without burdening the viewer with a lot of resources" because the priority, they both repeat over and over again, is to tell the story.

Success belongs to those who build a good informative story and you don't have to be in a trench to achieve success

Carlos Franganillo

Thus, Mediaset launches one of its most ambitious bets of its new stage. Moreno and Franganillo, after their incorporation, supported by the "enormous professional value" of the human team that makes up the newsroom, have built and will continue to build (because this is only the beginning, according to Mediaset sources) a new audiovisual approach to the news story.

Focused on the rigor and independence that have always been the hallmarks of Piqueras and Juan Pedro Valentín, now director of Informativos de Cuatro, the new Telecinco news programs are renewed with one main premise: a daily informative story far from "hyper-politicization" and connected to the concerns of citizens. in the facts and in their context.

"What are we going to do? Tell what's going on," Moreno asks and answers. "Our lines are marked by the spectators because in these turbulent times we have had to maintain the calm and sobriety that has always characterized us," he adds. Moreno didn't land at Mediaset to hit audiences. Nor does he seek it. He is aware, and assures us, that "audiences are built from viewer to viewer; They don't collapse or shoot up, and that's why the important thing for us is that those who see us today continue to see us tomorrow."

Moreno and Franganillo are the perfect dance partner. For them, information is the fact and it is knowing how to tell it and the rest, forgive the redundancy, they leave to others. "In a democracy and in an open society, many options have to compete," says Franganillo when asked about the type of news program such as that of Vicente Vallés, on Antena 3, in which his opinions and editorials are his hallmark. "They are perfectly legitimate informational bets as long as they are honest and serve to enrich," he continues. However, Franganillo and Moreno are clear that Mediaset's news programs have to continue in the wake of independence, despite the fact that many point out that now, for a news program to succeed, it has to editorialize. "I'm very skeptical of that statement because for me success belongs to those who build a good informative story and you don't have to be in a trench to achieve success. In addition, I think there is a weariness of politicization," says the presenter.

Moreno goes much further when it comes to talking about the battles for audiences or what would be a success or not: "We have a set that is too beautiful to fill with blood to reach an audience of 60%. It's not about gaining an audience at any cost because then that takes its toll. It's about growing and gaining confidence every day."

It's not about gaining an audience at any cost because then that takes its toll

Francisco Moreno

With this, in each of the editions, the philosophy will be to reflect the reality of what happens in the most plural way possible, so that it is the spectators who, with all the data, can forge their opinion. In other words, the information is not going to be editorialized. "What would be the point of doing what others are already doing. We have to mark our own identity."

In addition to "wiggle", the other word they all use to describe this new stage is "illusion". From Ángeles Blanco, who together with Isabel Jiménez will be in charge of the 15:00 p.m. newscast, the first news program with two women piloting the ship, and who says she is "excited to have left Singapore behind" in reference to the background that until now the network's news programs had. Even José Ribagorda, who will present the weekend news with David Cantero and Leticia Iglesias, for whom "rigour, ethics and commitment are decisive and vital" to inform.

  • Telecinco
  • Mediaset