Social Profitability of Spanish general TV chains. Application of the IRSCOM Indicator

Abstract

This work determines the level of social profitability of the main Spanish generalist, public and private television channels: La 1, La 2, Antena3, Cuatro, Telecinco and La Sexta, based on the implementation of the IRSCOM (Indicator of Social Profitability in Communication), a methodology that determines the level of commitment of the audiovisual media with citizens from the point of view of the common good based on five fields of activity: Management and Transparency, Human Resources, Territorial Articulation, Programming and Online Activity. Based on the reason that these media, based on the use of the spectrum as public property, are subject to responsible use of it under the premise of public service, although deregulatory policies (LGCA 7/2010 and 13/ 2022) have agreed that this requirement is only binding for publicly owned media. The results of the investigation denote a low level of social profitability in private chains and a medium level in public ones. The main deficiencies are detected in territorial articulation, programming and human resources.