The CNMC dismantles the PP's "Telepedro" narrative and endorses RTVE's informational pluralism

The National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC) has endorsed the political pluralism of RTVE and has disproven, with data, the discourse that the Popular Party has been maintaining for years about an alleged partisan use of public radio and television. The report corresponding to the first quarter of 2026 concludes that TVE's news programs maintain a balanced distribution of speaking time between the Government and the opposition, thus dismantling the narrative of the so-called "Telepedro" that the PP has popularized in recent years.

According to the regulatory body, the Government bloc concentrated 53.03% of the speaking time, compared to 46.97% allocated to the opposition, a difference that the CNMC itself attributes to the exercise of government action and not to biased news coverage. Furthermore, during electoral periods, the regulator highlights that this distance is reduced until reaching a scenario of practically absolute balance.

One of the most striking data from the report is that the Popular Party was the political formation with the greatest individual presence in TVE's news programs, concentrating 32.31% of the total speaking time, ahead of the rest of the parties. A result that contrasts with the repeated accusations by the popular party against the Corporation, to the point of having recently promoted a parliamentary investigation commission on the management of RTVE, while they have not promoted similar initiatives regarding several regional television channels governed by the PP itself.

On the other hand, RTVE has conveyed to the CNMC the need to establish a common and stable methodology for evaluating political pluralism. While such a criterion does not exist, the Corporation has adopted as a reference the model of the French audiovisual authority ARCOM, known as the "rule of three thirds", which divides time between the Government, parties that support the Executive, and the opposition. Applying this system, the Government obtained 33.36% of the speaking time, the forces supporting the Executive 17.01%, and the opposition 49.63%, well above the theoretical third foreseen by this model.

RTVE has also put on the table another element it considers relevant for assessing pluralism: the Popular Party's repeated refusal to participate in numerous programs on the public channel. According to the Corporation, it has informed the CNMC that only La Hora de La 1 has invited PP representatives on 36 occasions, always receiving a negative response. Despite this, RTVE assures that it incorporates the party's positions through public statements, institutional appearances, or press conferences to guarantee the representation of all political forces in its news programs.