TVE pays Otero €25,000 per show, Hurtado just €700

Jordi Hurtado earns €700 per episode and Julia Otero €25,000

The table circulates with the coldness of an amortization schedule. One public entity, one lineup, two different worlds: Julia Otero takes home €25,000 for each episode of Días de Tele; Jordi Hurtado receives €700 for each Saber y ganar. Between them lies a ranking of twenty-two names that drops to €200. These are fees per program, not monthly salaries, a nuance that dismantles many headlines.

The list was published by as.com and reproduced without alteration. It orders from highest to lowest what TVE pays its faces per broadcast, leaving an uncomfortable picture for public broadcasting: fees ranging from €25,000 to €200 under the same roof and with the same payer, the taxpayer.

What each TVE presenter earns per program

According to the data released, the full ranking is as trinc:

• Julia Otero (Días de Tele): €25,000
• Juan y Medio (Dúos Increíbles): €20,000
• Ana Morgade (Vamos a llevarnos bien): €20,000
• Luján Argüelles (Brigada Tech): €15,000
• Rodrigo Vázquez (Todos contra 1): €9,000
• María Casado (Las tres puertas, season 2): €8,000
• Lorenzo Caprile (Maestros de la costura 5): €7,500
• Raquel Sánchez Silva (Maestros de la costura 5): €7,200
• Xavier Sardà and Raúl Gómez (La gran confusión and Todos contra 1): €7,000
• Toñi Moreno (Plan de tarde): €5,000
• Cayetana Guillén Cuervo (Atención obras): €1,700
• Lourdes Maldonado (Hablando Claro): €1,000
• Quico Taronjí (Aquí la Tierra): €850
• Jordi Hurtado (Saber y ganar): €700
• Carla Fernández Pulpón 'Mapi': €200

The gap between first and last place exceeds one hundredfold. And here begins the first trap: comparing apples and oranges. A daily show and a weekly one do not have the same annual value, even if the figure per episode is identical.

The multiplication trick: from €700 to €350,000 a year

This is where things get complicated. A circulating calculation multiplies Hurtado’s €700 by six weekly programs, reaching €16,800 per month and €201,600 per year before taxes, which would net around €100,000 after withholdings. Another more generous estimate rounds directly to €30,000 per month and €350,000 annually. Neither is a salary; they are extrapolations. The real figure depends on how many episodes air, how many are reruns, and how long the season lasts.

From this comes the most repeated irony: the longest-serving presenter, the man who has led the same quiz for decades, appears at the bottom of the table. The conclusion drawn is uncomfortable for everyone else.

Why must a public television station exist?

Because, argues part of the analysis, a country needs media that defend its interests and offer information not paid for by private corporations. That is the classic argument, and it still holds on paper.

The problem is the usual one: a public TV station funded by taxes is one that someone uses to tell their version. The moment politics enters, it aligns with some and contradicts others, doing so with the money of those who disagree. Accusations of manipulation have fallen on TVE under every government, without exception. Those who arrive change the teams; those who leave had already changed them. Few people watch the channel, but no one accepts closing it. It’s not magic, it’s your taxes, summarizes the sharpest retort.

The business isn’t in the face: external production companies

Focus on presenters distracts from the big ticket item. TVE buys much of its lineup from private producers, and that’s where millions fly. Mediapro sold TVE a reality show with Raquel Sánchez Silva for €5.6 million. The first season of Dúos increíbles cost €9 million. The eighth of Masterchef Celebrity, €7.2 million. The premiere of El Conquistador del Caribe, €5,653,000.

Lined up, these contracts explain better than any fee table where the budget ends. The presenter is the face; the invoice is elsewhere.

What changes when the Government changes

Each transition at La Moncloa brings its own reshuffle at the house. New executives enter, previous ones leave, and the lineup is reordered. Defenders of the public entity attribute this to a lack of structural independence; those calling for closure use it as proof that the model is broken. No one disputes the underlying diagnosis: Spanish public broadcasting has been accused for decades of functioning as spoils for the ruling party.

Striking is that, despite such widespread complaint, the majority reaction is not to dismantle it but to demand that their side manage it. This breaks any possible consensus on the model.

The detail that disorients is not at the top, but at the bottom: the last figure in the table is €200 per program. The distance from the €25,000 of first place is two and a half zeros. And that gap, more than any other, says what TVE is today.