Mario Rodríguez, chairman of Mediaset España, will become president of UTECA (Unión de Televisiones Comerciales en Abierto), the association of Spain’s free-to-air commercial broadcasters, on 1 January 2027. UTECA said on 12 November that its board had elected him unanimously for 2027–2030. He succeeds Eduardo Olano, president of Atresmedia Publicidad, who has led the association for eight years and now becomes one of its two vice-presidents.
Spain’s two largest private broadcasters swap places at the top. Mediaset España, owner of Telecinco, takes the presidency; Atresmedia, owner of Antena 3, keeps a vice-presidency. For producers, the post matters because UTECA’s members are among the companies Spanish law obliges to invest in European films and series, and UTECA is the body that speaks for them when those obligations are argued over.
Key facts
- New president: Mario Rodríguez, chairman of Mediaset España since March 2026, elected unanimously by UTECA’s board for 2027–2030
- Outgoing president: Eduardo Olano, president of Atresmedia Publicidad, who led UTECA for eight years and becomes vice-president
- Second vice-president: Lucía Fernández del Viso, director general of Ábside Media, representing TRECE, re-elected
- UTECA’s eight members run 21 digital terrestrial channels in Spain, the association says
- Under Spain’s audiovisual law, broadcasters with €50m ($55.4m) or more in revenue must invest 5% of it in European works, with at least 40% of that going to cinema films by independent producers
What he says he will do
Rodríguez said he would carry on Olano’s work and press for equal rules with the big platforms and social networks, naming two fronts: cross-media audience measurement and the prominence of free-to-air television. “UTECA’s members are fully aware of the social role entrusted to us, and of our responsibility to society as trusted media and to advertisers as safe environments for their brands,” he said in UTECA’s statement (FilmBunch’s translation from the Spanish).
The board credited Olano with leading the association’s demand for “real equality of rights and obligations” with the platforms and social networks, which it called essential for balanced competition. Its line throughout his tenure has been the same rights and the same obligations for every audiovisual service.
Who he is
Rodríguez is a lawyer by training. After seven years at the firm of the administrative-law professor Santiago Muñoz Machado, he joined Gestevisión Telecinco, now Mediaset España, in 1998. He became secretary to the board in 2000, secretary general in 2003 and corporate director general in December 2010, and the board named him chairman on 10 March 2026. Mediaset España’s announcement in March adds two details UTECA’s release leaves out: he has already served as a UTECA vice-president, and he sits on the board of the Association of Commercial Television and Video on Demand Services in Europe (ACT).
Mediaset España is owned by MFE-MediaForEurope, the Italian group that also controls ProSiebenSat.1, whose nine-month results showed German TV advertising down 12% this week.
Founded in 1998, UTECA counts Atresmedia, DKISS, Mediaset España, Net TV, Real Madrid TV, TEN, TRECE and VEO TV as members.
Why film producers follow it
Law 13/2022, Spain’s general audiovisual law, requires broadcasters and streamers with revenue in Spain of €50m or more ($55.4m at the European Central Bank rate of 12 November) to put 5% of it each year into European works. They can co-produce, buy rights to finished works or pay into the ICAA’s Fondo de Protección a la Cinematografía. At least 70% of the total must go to independent producers, and at least 40% to cinema films by independent producers. Both Mediaset España and Atresmedia have their own film arms, Telecinco Cinema and Atresmedia Cine.
Streamers serving Spain carry the same obligation. On 10 November the government approved a decree setting out how streamers must meet the European-works quota and prominence rules, and the ICAA continues to fund the sector directly, including €2.2m ($2.4m) for 39 short films this month.
UTECA’s release set out no specific proposals and gave no date for its next position on audience measurement or prominence.
Our reading
The appointment keeps UTECA’s agenda where it has been for eight years: asking regulators to hold platforms to the rules broadcasters live under. What changes is the profile of the person making the case. Olano came from advertising sales. Rodríguez has spent nearly three decades on Mediaset’s licences, governance and dealings with regulators.
For producers, the practical question is whether broadcasters hold their film investment at the legal minimum while their advertising income comes under pressure. The next evidence will be the CNMC’s compliance figures on the 5% obligation, and whatever UTECA proposes on prominence once Rodríguez takes over in January.
Sources
- UTECA, La Junta Directiva elige a Mario Rodríguez nuevo presidente de UTECA (12 November 2026, Spanish)
- UTECA, Nosotros (association page: members, channels, mission)
- Mediaset España, Mario Rodríguez, nuevo presidente de Mediaset España (10 March 2026, Spanish)
- Boletín Oficial del Estado, Ley 13/2022 General de Comunicación Audiovisual, articles 117 and 119
- El Confidencial, El presidente de Mediaset España, Mario Rodríguez, al frente de UTECA (12 November 2026)
- 20minutos, Mario Rodríguez, presidente de Mediaset, se pondrá al frente de UTECA (12 November 2026)