Jesús Polanco Gutiérrez, also known as Jesús de Polanco (November 7, 1929 – July 21, 2007), was a businessman from

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

who built one of the largest media empires in the world. In 2005, he was ranked 3rd richest person in Spain and at number 210 in ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'' World's Richest People list, and was number 258 in 2006.

Media holdings

Born in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

to a military family from

Santillana del Mar Santillana del Mar () is a historic town situated in Cantabria, Spain. Its many historic buildings attract thousands of visitors every year. There is an old saying that Santillana del Mar is ''The Town of Three Lies'', since it is neither a Saint ...

Cantabria Cantabria (, ; ) is an autonomous community and Provinces of Spain, province in northern Spain with Santander, Cantabria, Santander as its capital city. It is called a , a Nationalities and regions of Spain, historic community, in its current ...

, Polanco was estimated to own 64% of the Prisa group, a conglomerate which includes ; the radio channel

Cadena SER La Cadena SER (the SER Network) is a Spanish radio network established in 1924, with a regular listenership of 4,139,000 reported in 2018. The acronym SER stands for Sociedad Española de Radiodifusión (Spanish Broadcasting Company). Cadena SE ...

; the TV channel

Cuatro (TV) Cuatro (stylized as cuatro°, "Four") is a Spanish free-to-air television channel that was launched in November 2005. Owned by Mediaset España, the Spanish subsidiary of the Italian Mediaset group, it is broadcast on TV frequencies licensed to ...

, the digital TV platform

Digital+ Canal+ was a Spanish satellite broadcasting platform. It was previously known as Digital+ since its launch in 2003, and from 2011 it was known as Canal+, being named after its main premium channel. Formed on 23 July 2003 as a result of the equal ...

(including

Canal+ Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flo ...

), which has a monopoly on Spain's digital TV and a number of radio channels and local televisions. Prisa also had important interests in editing books and owned

Grupo Santillana Grupo Santillana, formerly Santillana Ediciones Generales, is a Spanish publisher founded in 1959 by Jesús de Polanco and Francisco Pérez González. From 2008 and due to the high debts of the group PRISA, Santillana made disinvestments to gui ...

, Ediciones El País, El País Aguilar,

Alfaguara Alfaguara is a Spanish-language publishing house that serves markets in Hispanic America, Spain and the United States. It was founded by the Spanish writer and Nobel Prize winner Camilo José Cela. History and profile Alfaguara was establishe ...

Altea Altea (, ) is a city and municipality located in the Valencian Community, Spain, on the section of Mediterranean coast called the Costa Blanca. At present, the economy of Altea is based on tourism, which started to grow in the 1950s because of ...

, Tiendas Crisol, I.B. Tauris and Richmon Publishing. His nickname became 'Jesús del Gran Poder' for his role behind the political scene. Polanco's media interests were known for being progressive or left-wing. More conservative and clerical rivals in the media, such as the newspapers ''

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

'' and '' El Mundo'' or the radio station

COPE A cope ( ("rain coat") or ("cape")) is a liturgical long mantle or cloak, open at the front and fastened at the breast with a band or clasp. It may be of any liturgical colour. A cope may be worn by any rank of the Catholic or Anglican clerg ...

, have at times accused Polanco's related media of having a monopoly on Spanish information and being capable of presenting biased reporting. Some of these have also accused PRISA of influencing public opinion against the People's Party (PP) government's management and response to the Madrid train bomb attacks of March 11, 2004. The People's Party, led into the campaign by

Mariano Rajoy Mariano Rajoy Brey (, ; born 27 March 1955) is a Spanish politician who served as Prime Minister of Spain from 2011 to 2018, when a 2018 vote of no confidence in the government of Mariano Rajoy, vote of no confidence ousted his government. A m ...

, ultimately lost the 2004 Spanish elections to the

Spanish Socialist Workers' Party The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( , PSOE ) is a Social democracy, social democratic Updated as required.The PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * List of political parties in Spain, political party ...

(PSOE), led by

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (; born 4 August 1960) is a Spanish politician and member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). He was the Prime Minister of Spain being elected for two terms, in the 2004 and 2008 general elections. O ...

. In 2005 Prisa asked the Spanish Government for a license to transform the pay TV channel

into an open channel. The Government conceded this license and

channel started broadcasting in November 2005. Subsequently, opposition was expressed about the lack of dialogue on this subject. In 2007, responding to the accusations of his media being biased, Polanco said that it was difficult to be impartial when there is a party which would do anything to go back into power. The Spanish People's Party reacted by promoting a boycott of all Polanco's media channels and shareholders. This initiative was criticised by all European democratic parties. On July 21, 2007 Polanco died at the age of 77 in Madrid.

References

External links

Prisa Group
{{DEFAULTSORT:Polanco, Jesus De 1929 births 2007 deaths Businesspeople from Cantabria Spanish mass media owners 20th-century Spanish businesspeople Spanish newspaper publishers (people) PRISA Members of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts 21st-century Spanish businesspeople