TVE swaps soap operas for business advice in radical schedule changes

After reaching a record low last June, when its audience share dropped to 9.6 percent, state broadcaster TVE has announced its new and risky plan to try and save the afternoon slot on La 1.

Next Monday at 4.15pm, the first of a new series, Entre todos (Between everyone), will be broadcast. The program will introduce people seeking help, mainly entrepreneurs, and ask the audience to help make their dreams come true.

Most of the participants will need financial or technical help. Some might simply need funding but, the program's enthusiastic presenter Toñi Moreno says: "The important thing is not to hand over a fish, but to give them a fishing rod."

Entre todos seems to be part of a continuing trend in public television, part of a wave of similar entrepreneurial shows urging people to find their own way out of the crisis. In fact, the format for Entre todos was imported, presenter included, from Canal Sur. In this show, a team of reporters will travel around Spain, talking to those who need help, while a group of experts offers advice from the studio.

These experts will include economists, lawyers, doctors and psychologists, all of whom, Moreno stresses, will be offering their services voluntarily.

The aim is for the program to act "as a vehicle so that these values will be transmitted into the real world"

The premise that Entre todos starts from is that what is distinct about Spanish society is its supportive character, its creativity, and its capacity for innovation. The aim is for the program to act "as a vehicle so that these values will be transmitted into the real world."

It will have to be seen whether this opinion will be shared by audiences and translated into active participation.

TVE's recent projects have not met with much success. Tenemos que hablar, a talk show, was dropped just three months after its launch. Neither did game show Letris or celebrity chronicle Corazón get off the ground.

This change to the afternoon line-up signals a move away from a Spanish staple: soap operas.

Ever since Falcon Crest came to TVE in the mid-1980s, soaps have been a popular format, with South American telenovelas, and then home-grown Spanish dramas, gaining loyal fan bases.

However, for public channels, financial difficulties have changed things. TVE had to sell the rights to its highly successful soap, Amar en tiempos revueltos (Love in troubled times), to Antena 3, which broadcasts it under a different name.

Now, La 1 is hastening the end of its latest after-lunch soap, Gran Reserva. El origen , by showing two episodes back to back every day.

Only time will tell if these radical changes in programing strategy turn TVE's fortunes around.