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Telecinco
Type	Private
Founded	1989
Headquarters	Madrid, Spain
Key people	Alejandro Echevarría (Chairman of the Board), Paolo Vasile (CEO)
Industry	Media
Products	Television, radio and online content
Revenue	€931.11 million (2005)
Employees	1,185
Website	http://www.telecinco.es

Gestevisión Telecinco, S.A., (IBEX-35:TL5) is a Spanish television station, one of the leading Spanish private TV companies, created by Silvio Berlusconi. It started broadcasting on March 3, 1990. It's the second private television in Spain after Antena 3.

It is owned by Mediaset Investimenti (50.1%), Vocento (13%) and free-float (36.9%). In 1997 the corporate identity was changed from Tele 5 to the current Telecinco, dropping Berlusconi's flower logo in the process.

Its current hit shows include Los Serrano, Hospital Central, El Comisario, Caiga Quien Caiga and Motivos Personales. Former hits include Médico de Familia, Al Salir de Clase, Periodistas, 7 Vidas, and talk show Crónicas Marcianas. Other programs that have been broadcast on Telecinco include Hamtaro and Pokémon, both of which are also on Jetix in Spain.

Telecinco also snapped up the rights to the popular US crime drama franchise CSI, rotating the original CSI and spinoffs CSI: NY and CSI: Miami in its Monday primetime slot. The channel is usually ratings leader on Monday nights thanks to the franchise, having been known to schedule as many as five episodes from 10pm on Monday night.

Other US imports to have aired on the channel include Beverly Hills, 90210, Melrose Place, Models, Inc., The X-Files (excluding seasons eight and nine), Walker, Texas Ranger, Twin Peaks, Criminal Minds, Charmed, Felicity, Alias

With the long running magazine show Día a Día hosted by veteran María Teresa Campos, the channel managed to lead every morning for a number of seasons. Campos later defected to rival Antena 3 with a copycat format in 2004, despite the programme being almost identical it was pulled in 2005 after one and a half seasons and numerous revamps. With the departure of Campos in 2004, Telecinco signed journalist Ana Rosa Quintana, who had fronted the afternoon hit magazine show Sabor a Ti on rival Antena 3 for years. The new programme, El Programa de Ana Rosa, became an instant hit and is currently the number one rated daytime show in Spain, followed closely by Antena 3's Espejo Publico.

In July 2006, Telecinco, having been behind in the afternoon timeslot ratings, managed to beat rival Antena 3. This was primarily due to the end of the popular soap operas Pasión de gavilanes and El Cuerpo del Deseo. Telecinco also commissioned a local adaptation of huge hit soap opera Betty La Fea, which they titled Yo Soy Bea. It has been a huge hit having secured a 30% share of the audience on August 24th 2006. The introduction of the soap opera also boosted the afternoon line-up which includes magazine show A Tu Lado and gameshow Allá Tú (Deal or No Deal).

Telecinco is also home to Big Brother, with the seventh edition due to air autumn 2006. The reality show has become a huge hit for the channel, and in view of this, the reality show feeds many of the channel's programmes such as the morning show El Programa de Ana Rosa, the tabloid show Aquí hay tomate, the afternoon show A Tu Lado, and weekly tabloid show Salsa Rosa (re-named Dolce Vita in August 2006). All the programmes experienced a substantial ratings boost thanks to the "Big Brother Effect", even though A tu Lado has since fallen back to low ratings.

Telecinco is also renowned for its reality shows, having produced a number of popular ones in the last decade, Gran Hermano, Supervivientes, La Casa de Tu Vida, Hotel Glam, Gran Hermano VIP, Operación Triunfo, amongst others.

In June 2005, it started broadcasting the fourth season of reality/talent show Operación Triunfo. The previous three seasons were broadcast by TVE, who turned down a fourth.

In view of their success in the field of reality TV, Telecinco planned to be screen simultaneously none other than three reality TV formats during autumn 2006. These are; Operacion Triunfo (Fifth season and second on Telecinco); Gran Hermano (Season 8) and the new Desafio Bajo Cero (celebrities skating on ice). As is the norm for all reality TV shows on the channel, the three have received support coverage in all the channel's magazine shows, as well as daily updates during the week. The overreliance on the genre cause the low acceptance of Desafio Bajo Cero, which was then dropped at the secong program and a substantial decline of Gran Hermano.

Telecinco has recently digitalized their production facilities. This will allow broadcasting of up to 16 different languages, 5.1 surround sound, interactive services, widescreen (16:9) programming, or even high-definition television in the future (it currently broadcasts in 4:3 and mono in dtt). In 2005 it started to air two new channels for the digital terrestrial television: Telecinco Estrellas ('Telefive Stars'), devoted to TV series and films; and Telecinco Sport.

• Official Site (Spanish)
• Investor Relations (English)

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