RTVE Interactive
The Interactive Division at Corporación de Radio Televisión Española (RTVE), which is also known as RTVE.es, is responsible for the design, launch and management of digital products and services at the State-Owned Corporation and the multi-screen strategy for public television. This division manages and runs all of the web-sites for the different sections that make up the group (News, Television, Radio, Children's Programmes, Sports and À La Carte), as well as those that have been created as a digital complement for RTVE's large television productions ("Águila Roja", "Cuéntame Cómo Pasó”, "MasterChef", etc.), not to mention the extension of RTVE products to all other platforms (mobiles, tablets, consoles and TV connected to Internet). The strategy pursued by RTVE.es consists of bringing TVE and RNE to all screens and creating contents on all supports that help to enrich users' radio and television experience. Since 2013 it has formed part of the organisational set-up at Spanish Television under the name of iTVE.
History
The division was created in 2007, in accordance with the provisions set out in the Law on State-Owned Radio and Television. As part of the provision of a public radio and television service, this Law provides for the incorporation of "related and interactive services" amongst the products offered by RTVE. Similarly, the first Framework Mandate for Corporación RTVE -which was passed by the Spanish Parliament in December 2007- reflects this directive and empowers RTVE to develop new Internet-orientated services.
Up until 2007, RTVE.es had served, above all, as a corporate information web site, one that also included information regarding the programme schedules on its different radio and television channels. Once the new division had been created, its first grand project was to launch an entirely revamped web site, featuring information constantly generated and updated by its own team. Users could also watch and listen to the most popular contents on TVE and RNE's programme schedule.
Up until the definitive launch of this new RTVE.es in May 2008, the division worked on various new projects within the digital field. Among these we might highlight the launch of a participative micro-site in conjunction with YouTube (March 2008) in order to bring together videoed questions posed by members of the public so that responses could be given by different candidates in the general elections that year, all of which was broadcast entirely live on TVE's channel, La 1. Furthermore, the selection process for Spain's representative at the Eurovision Song Contest that year was carried out by means of a web site created jointly with MySpace.
Launch of RTVE.es
In May 2008 the new RTVE.es web site was launched, based on different RTVE contents: 24-hour news and entertainment. The site sought to highlight the value of radio and television contents within a digital environment.
The newest section consisted of the "RTVE.es À La Carte" Service, which placed a large on-demand audio and video consumer platform at the disposal of users for a week following the broadcast of these contents. RTVE.es À La Carte has gradually grown in terms of its contents until it has become the largest professional audio and video platform on the Internet in Spanish, featuring more than 300,000 available items.
Other new services during the launch period included "TV News in 4 Minutes", a news package formula specially designed for online consumption. The web site also included a blog section (which currently brings together more than one hundred blogs) and gradually integrated different participation opportunities by means of the leading social media.
Milestones
The first milestone following the launch of RTVE.es consisted of the broadcast of the Olympic Games via the Internet for the first time in history. The broadcast of the Olympic Games in Beijing in the summer of 2008 set an important new benchmark on the Internet. Up until that time, coverage of the Games had been restricted to the free-to-air broadcast of the sports events
The London Olympics of 2012
Coverage of the Olympic Games in London in 2012 constituted another milestone in the history of RTVE Interactive, given that this was the first multimedia, multi-screen and social media Olympics in history. Over the years immediately following its launch, RTVE Interactive had successfully broadcast a number of large sporting events online (The Beijing Olympic Games, the Champions League, the Vuelta a Espana or Tour of Spain, the Tour de France). In the summer of 2012, the greater degree of connectivity and the considerable rise in mobile devices, tablets and connectable televisions, constituted a new challenge in terms of the distribution capacity for audiovisual contents. This project was a resounding success with regard to the following it attracted and its degree of acceptance. This multi-channel broadcasting (up to 19 simultaneous signals featuring specific data, in addition to the signals broadcast via television), provided the foundation for similar projects to be developed, such as +24 or the multi-camera broadcasting of specific events: San Fermines, the Goya Awards, the Final of the Copa del Rey (King's Cup), etc.
The Filmoteca/NODO Project
This project, which is being carried out jointly by RTVE.es and the Spanish National Film Institute (Filmoteca Nacional), provides an excellent example of the distinctive nature of the projects that are implemented based on a public service of cultural character. In December 2012, the NODO web site was launched in order to offer the public access to part of the audiovisual archives at the Filmoteca Nacional, featuring an initial catalogue made up of more than 4,000 videos, with a total duration of some 700 hours. This project also incorporated a multi-screen dimension, effectively facilitating access via search engines, mobiles, tablets and video-game consoles.
Contents and services
The RTVE.es portal today is organised according to various different thematic areas. First of all, the news area generates and updates its news items 24 hours a day. Video and audio contents play an important role within this part of the web site. Then we have the radio and television areas, which bring together contents relating to programmes broadcast by Spanish State Television (Televisión Española) and Spanish State Radio (Radio Nacional). These sections also include the web sites of the different series, such as "Isabel", "Águila Roja" and "Cuéntame Cómo Pasó". Among these main thematic areas on the web site, we might mention the Sports section, which, in addition to offering the latest sporting news, has specialised in the live broadcast of sporting events, such as football matches (Champions League, Copa del Rey), tennis and cycling (Vuelta a España, Tour de France). In addition, the Sports area offers all the latest results and information regarding classifications in different competitions. Another important section deals with the weather. RTVE.es offers access to weather forecasts for more than 10,000 locations, as well as providing constantly updated details regarding weather developments. Also important to highlight the creation of a children's portal on the RTVE.es web site, built around the brand known as Clan, TVE's children's channel.
Clan and its multi-device products
Children's contents have always featured prominently on RTVE's programme schedule. In 2009 a web site was created that brought together all of TVE's children's contents in order to offer a homogenous range that fulfilled the principles of safe navigation, entertainment and education for the youngest members of the public. This web site, which has grown over time as it has incorporated specific applications for mobiles, tablets and televisions connected to the Internet, offers a large number of children's series from the international realm and includes games and contents for parents, both in Spanish and in English, replete with specific applications for mobiles.
The new "RTVE.es À La Carte"
À La Carte radio and television constitute one of the founding pillars of RTVE.es today. The RTVE.es À La Carte Service was renewed in early 2011 in order to offer certain improvements in terms of content design and architecture. As of that time, web site users were able to gain access to all of the audio and video archives available from a single point of access. Since that time, users throughout Spain, depending on the geographical area, have also been able to gain access to all RTVE broadcasts without time limits. An important access area has also been developed for the TVE historical archive.
Associated with this À La Carte consultation service, another of the structural pillars of RTVE.es consists of live broadcasts. All TVE and Radio Nacional broadcasts can be followed live on the web site, encompassing a total of five television channels and six radio stations. What is more, the live service also includes specific broadcasts other than those of the radio and television channels, as well as complementary resources featuring services such as +24, which enables users to see the 24-hour channel, Canal 24 Horas, and combine the main broadcast with alternative signals.
RTVE.es Lab: The Audiovisual Innovation Lab
In 2011 RTVE.es created the Laboratory, an audiovisual innovation area, with a view to exploring new forms of conveying information and contents via the Internet. The Lab is made up of a multi-disciplinary team consisting of journalists, designers, producers and web developers, all of whom seek to make the very most of the web site's communicational possibilities. Since it was created, the team has worked on dozens of projects linked to news and photo journalism and interactive reports. It has received various forms of recognition from the industry, including a number of Lovie Awards granted by the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences. The Lab's latest challenge is to make further progress under the heading of webdoc, consisting of documentaries that are created for the Internet.
Multi-platform presence
In 2010 the Interactive Media Division set up a multi-screen strategy in order to bring RTVE contents to new devices, including intelligent mobiles, video-game consoles and televisions connected to the Internet. With the arrival of the iPhone in Spain, RTVE was one of the first media bodies to launch a web site adapted to this new device. As of 2009 a number of native applications were launched for both iOS and Android, which were later complemented with applications for Windows Phone and Blackberry. In December 2011, the range of applications for other devices encompassed the main Smart TV manufacturers (Samsung, LG, Sony, Panasonic) and the Xbox and Play Station 3 consoles.
Hybrid Television, RTVE.es Red Button and Connected Televisions
With the appearance in 2009 of the first television receivers on the market featuring IP connectivity, and in view of the ongoing expansion of this technology, a need arose at an international level for a set of standards that would help radio and television broadcasters develop different applications. The decision to support the HbbTV (Hybrid Broadcast-Broadband TV) Standard taken by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), of which RTVE is a founding member, led Interactive Media to set up a specific strategy for the introduction of this technology. Alongside other broadcasters, the industry and the Government, Interactive Media worked to create the first version of the standard for its application to the Spanish market, which was officially published in September 2012. In July 2011 a pilot test version was launched, which later led to the launch of the RTVE.es À La Carte Service for HbbTV compatible televisions in December 2011. This was followed by a version of Clan for the same kind of receiver. In early September 2013, RTVE.es launched its new application known as RTVE.es Red Button, a range of interactive services based on the HbbTV standard that extended and replaced the old HbbTV À La Carte Service, and which currently offers more than 90,000 hours of programmes, series and documentaries, along with news, sports and the best of Clan. In November 2013, RTVE launched +TVE, a consumer application to watch and share mobile phone and tablet content of programs and sports broadcasts of the public broadcaster.
Awards
RTVE Interactive Media has received numerous international awards in recent years for both its web pages and applications and for its coverage. In this respect, we might mention the following, amongst others: a Rose D'Or, the Iris Award from the Spanish Television Academy, the FesTVal de Vitoria Award, a Malofiej Award, various Lovie Awards, and the Best Web Award from the Latin American Internet Users Association.
Directors of interactive media
- Rosalía Lloret Merino (2007-2010)
- Ricardo Villa Asensi (2010–present)