Telecinco has just bought the rights to ‘El Rosco’ from ‘Pasapalabra’. The only problem is that ‘Pasapalabra’ is from Antena 3

Among many other things that have happened in recent years with ‘Pasapalabra’, Mediaset paid a fine of 73 million euros for broadcasting the program without having the rights, lost the program in 2019 and has been watching for six agonizing years how Antena 3 turned it into the most watched contest in Spain. Now, Telecinco announces that it has El Rosco back. The only thing missing is everything else.

Back to Mediaset. This Wednesday, Mediaset España confirmed in a very brief press release (consisting, in fact, of a single sentence, which could be interpreted as that Telecinco is not yet completely clear about its plans), that it is preparing “a new program that will include El Rosco as the final and main element.” we already knew that the Supreme Court had forced Antena 3 to withdraw that test from ‘Pasapalabra’, and abundant rumors were already circulating that approximately a year and a half ago Telecinco had closed the agreement to recover the test, conditional on the courts ruling in favor of the Dutch company MC&F, owner of the rights.

High hierarchies. To get an idea of ​​how coveted the Rosco is, you only have to keep one thing in mind: the new agreement between Mediaset and MC&F was negotiated directly by Alessandro SalemCEO of the audiovisual group. What Mediaset has acquired is the license to use El Rosco: the circle of letters, the dynamic of “passing the word”, the repetition of unanswered questions and the final stopwatch. What it has not acquired is ‘Pasapalabra’ in its entirety: the full format of the contest belongs to ITV, which maintains its current contract with Antena 3. That is, the new Telecinco program cannot be called ‘Pasapalabra’ nor replicate the tests prior to Rosco.

The importance of Rosco. All these shenanigans to acquire a test and not a program, without a doubt, put a question on the table: what is the true drawing power of Rosco alone if it does not have the previous forty minutes that generate tension and familiarize us with the contestants. That is the task that Mediaset now has before it: to build a program of prior tests that firmly support the star challenge.

The fine. Telecinco does not come to this acquisition of Rosco with the joy of teenage boyfriends. The Provincial Court of Madrid sentenced Mediaset to pay 73.2 million euros to ITV for broadcasting ‘Pasapalabra’ without authorization between 2012 and 2019. The figure was increased considerably over the initial calculation of 44.3 million because the court estimated that the advertising revenue generated had been higher than those calculated in the first instance. Furthermore, the resolution recognized the “carryover effect”: the indirect benefit that the contest brought to the news and to the prime time later, which increased the main compensation by another 233,134 euros for that specific concept.

Delicate moment. The Rosco announcement comes at the worst time in Telecinco’s recent history. The channel closed 2025 with a 9.5% annual quotathe worst record in its history for the fourth consecutive year. December 2025 marked an 8.4% share, the worst month in the regular season of his entire career. January 2026 was even more brutal: 8.5% and its worst start to the yearbelow the aggregate of the autonomous chains. The chain has been chaining minimums since July 2025, and they have taken brutal cost cutting measures such as merge the set of Informativos Telecinco and Noticias Cuatro.

How Rosco affects audiences. ‘Pasapalabra’ is the most watched daily program on Spanish television for the sixth consecutive year, with an average share of 18.3% in the 2024/2025 season and a maximum of 21.1% in June 2025. But above all, El Rosco is the mechanism that keeps the viewer glued to Antena 3 until the nightly news. And whoever reaches the news program goes to ‘El Hormiguero’.

Telecinco does not have anything comparable in that segment, but El Rosco as the driving force of a new contest would be a good way to fight Antena 3 at the time of day when the largest audience drags towards the final stretch of the day. Meanwhile, Antena 3 can continue broadcasting the already recorded episodes of ‘Pasapalabra’ that include El Rosco, until they receive official notification. Hectic times are coming in the afternoons of traditional television.

In Xataka | Four years of historic audience lows: Telecinco is looking for oxygen this summer and its idea is to recycle presenters and formats