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I take on
the challenge with
humility, aware that it
will not be easy, but
with the confidence
and pride of knowing
that I can count on the
best possible team of
professionals and the
invaluable support of
the Board of Directors.
ATRESMEDIA
|
ANNUAL AND CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORT 2014
|
LETTER FROM THE CHAIRMAN
|
5
José Manuel Lara’s appointment as Chairman of
Antena 3
heralded the
start of one of the greatest periods of success and growth in the com-
pany’s history. Today, 12 years on,
Antena 3
has become
Atresmedia
, the
largest communications group in our country and a leading global oper-
ator in the most important business areas within the audiovisual sector:
television, radio, cinema and the digital environment. This is his legacy: a
bright present and a future full of opportunities.
He knew how to make us not only bigger, but also stronger and more effi-
cient. He turned
Atresmedia
into an organisation capable of dealing with
any obstacles and with him at the helm we have been able to overcome,
like few others, the greatest economic crisis ever known without ever
taking our eye off the need for profitability. He taught us that innovation,
the ability to adapt and non-conformity were the ways to achieve our
objectives.
Now, the challenge for all of us who form part of this company, and the
commitment that I personally adopted on 25 February when I was ap-
pointed Chairman of
Atresmedia
, is to carry on this great legacy. I take
on the challenge with humility, aware that it will not be easy, but with the
confidence and pride of knowing that I can count on the best possible
team of professionals and the invaluable support of the Board of Direc-
tors. I have the responsibility of continuing with a management approach
based on excellence and the energy and ambition to maintain and consol-
idate
Atresmedia
’s key role in the Spanish audiovisual sector.
The results for 2014 contained in this report speak for themselves in terms
of the strength of our company and this privileged position in the market
to which I have just referred. Similarly, they highlight our great ability to
take advantage of each and every growth opportunity that arises, even in
the most adverse of circumstances and, ultimately, they confirm that the
strategy established in recent years has been the right one.
Our overall approach as a Group has been to commit to plurality and
diversity as a differentiating value and to become an important and nec-
essary part of a society, which we are here to serve, which is also plural
and diverse. At the same time, all of our media channels and each of the
business areas where we operate share attributes (commitment to qual-
ity, talent, creativity and supporting the industry) that make
Atresmedia
a recognisable and well-respected operator. This is the balance that has
allowed us to distance ourselves from our competitors, providing us with
personality, and that has earned the respect of the market, the adver-
tisers, the audience and the audiovisual sector itself. It is undoubtedly a
fundamental factor in the constant improvement in our financial results,
which in 2014, as in recent years, can only be described as extraordinary.
By division, our television department is celebrating its anniversary. On
25 December 1989,
Antena 3
began its test broadcasts and became the
first private television network in the history of our country. Twenty five
years later we can proudly say that our way of understanding and making
television has allowed us to combine, like no other, reputation, large audi-
ences and profitability. The sum of these three factors, which are not easy
to combine in such a competitive market, make not only
Antena 3
but
also its family of channels,
Atresmedia TV
, the favourite TV operator with
audiences, the one with the best professionals according to the Spanish
people, an absolute leader in genres as important as news and drama,
the one showing most commitment to the development of the sector
and technological progress and the one with most awards and the best
image. In short, a truly leading organisation in society and the industry as
a whole.