Year in review

JANUARY

• 2/1/2009. Cuatro is the top-ranking European second generation TV channel with its best figures yet (8,6%).
• 16/01/2009. Ignacio Santillana and Manuel Polanco, PRISA general managers.
• 21/01/2009. El País merges newsrooms for both the newspaper and the Internet, and becomes a production company of quality content for print press, internet and mobile devices.
• 27/01/2009. CNN + is 10 years old.

FEBRUARY

• 20/2/2009. Fernando Martínez, named new secretary general of PRISA, and Íñigo Dago, head of the Legal Department.
• 26/2/2009. Launch of TVI24H, the 24 hour information TV channel owned by TVI.

MARCH

• 5/3/2009. PRISA wins award for supporting the Fundación de Ayuda contra la Drogadicción (Foundation for Aid Against Drug Addiction).
• 10/3/2009. Grupo Santillana and the Fundación Mapfre agree to co-publish the collection “Latin America in contemporary history. “
• 18/3/2009. Angels Barceló and Iñaki Gabilondo participate in a musical campaign against domestic violence.
• 28/3/2009. PRISA against climate change. All the Group’s media outlets team up with the WWF’s global campaign Earth Hour.

APRIL

• 1/4/2009. PRISA succeeds in deferring payment of 1,950 million euros for a further year.
• 22/4/2009. El País maintains its lead in the first quarter of 2009.
• 22/4/2009. Cadena SER reaches more than five million listeners daily and 40 Principales over four million.
• 27/4/2009. 40 Principales presents Viva la resistencia, a musical aimed at raising awareness against cervical cancer, with Amaia Montero.
• 29/4/2009. PRISA closes the Crisol chain of bookstores.

MAY

• 4/5/2009. Javier Díez de Polanco leaves Sogecable and PRISA’s audiovisual department.
• 7/5/2009. TVE, SER and El País, are named the public’s media of choice for following current affairs, according to a CIS study.
• 18/5/2009. Awards ceremony for the 26th annual Ortega y Gasset Awards for Journalism.
• 26/5/2009. The Argentine author Andrés Neuman wins the 12th annual Alfaguara Literary Prize.
• 27/5/2009. Coronita and 40 Principales team up to save our beaches.

JUNE

• 4/6/2009. Sogecable and Mediapro reach an agreement whereby Digital+ will broadcast all football league games until 2012.
• 8/6/2009. Fundación Santillana and Castilla-La Mancha regional authority honor Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Mario Vargas Llosa, with the 2nd annual Don Quixote de la Mancha.
• 14/6/2009. La Cadena SER organizes a mass campaign to promote blood donations.
• 17/6/2009. The publisher Santillana donates 23,500 books to state-run schools in Guatemala.
• 22/6/2009. The Fundación Santillana holds the 3rd annual literary event Lecciones y maestros with special guests Antonio Muñoz Molina, Angeles Mastretta and Luis Mateo Díez.
• 30/6/2009. Cuatro is brand ranks in fourth among the Top 10 brands in Spain.
• 30/6/2009. Kalipedia and Panda Security team up to promote responsible internet use among minors.

JULY

• 2/7/2009. The Jesus de Polanco academic chair analyzes the global crisis.
• 7/7/2009. Caja Madrid and El País bring together experts to discuss the international crisis
• 7/7/2009. PRISA creates a new Business Transversal Direction to boost its actives globally.
• 8/7/2009. AS beats its own record in the EGM media audit: 1.323 million readers
• 21/7/2009. The Fundación Santillana celebrates 30 years and launches a new website.
• 21/7/2009. PRISA media available via Amazon’s Kindle.
• 22/7/2009. Launch of Canal+ Liga, a football channel offering two games daily for 15 euros a month.

AUGUST

• 26/8/2009. PRISA and the US company IBN announce a strategic partnership on the NASDAQ. IBN takes 4.5% stake in the Group.

SEPTEMBER

• 7/9/2009. 40 Principales and Adolfo Dominguez team up to launch the Music Collection.
• 25/9/2009. 50 writers discuss creative writing at the literary forum Conversaciones en Formentor, organized by Fundación Santillana.
• 28/9/2009. PRISA agrees to sell 25% of Santillana to DLJ South American Partners.

OCTOBER

• 6/10/2009. El País increases its presence in Mexico through an agreement with El Economista.
• 9/10/2009. The Cuban historian Rafael Rojas wins the first annual Isabel Polanco International Essay Prize.
• 9/10/2009. Juan Pedro Valentin appointed head of news at Cuatro and CNN +.
• 15/10/2009. 40 Principales top hits are turned into a stage musical.
• 22/10/2009. PRISA acquired a 17% of V-me, the fourth US Spanish- language television network.
• 26/10/2009 El Larguero, SER’s sports radio program, finishes a twentieth anniversary tour with special guest Cristiano Ronaldo.
• 28/10/2009. antander, Google, TVE and PRISA named the best companies to work at.
• 29/10/2009. El País celebrates 10 years in Argentina.
• 30/10/2009. 40 Principales and Fundación + Arboles set in motion a campaign to combat climate change through planting thousands of trees.

NOVEMBER

• 4/11/2009. Cuatro celebrates four years on air with the launch of Play Cuatro, its new online video-on-demand service.
• 4/11/2009. Awards gala for the 56th annual Premios Ondas Awards.
• 16/11/2009. Rolling Stone magazine celebrates its tenth anniversary in Spain by honoring the country’s greatest performers.
• 16/11/2009. The Fundación Telefónica, FCC and Teams wins the Cinco Dias Awards for Innovation in Business 2009.
• 16/11/2009. Cuarto organizes the aid concert X1Fin: Together for Sahara.
• 19/11/2009. Digital+ organizes the first Madrid Series Festival.
• 23/11/2009. The 24th annual Education Week has as its theme: “Teaching and learning: ideas and practices for teaching professionals“.
• 24/11/2009. Fundación Santillana and Fundación Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes agree to create an online portal to promote and make available Spanish-language essay.
• 25/11/2009. Telefonica buys 21% of Digital + for 400 million euros.

DECEMBER

• 3/12/2009. Awards gala for the AS Sports Awards 2009.
• 3/12/2009. Cuatro makes history with its promo for Lost, causing a sensation worldwide among fans of the hit TV show.
• 10/12/2009. Cadena SER consolidates its national lead in terms of audience figures.
• 11/12/2009. Alex Martinez Roig and Manuel Mirat, new general managers of Sogecable pay TV.
• 11/12/2009. Awards gala for the fourth annual 40 Principales Awards
• 17/12/2009. El País strengthens its online presence. Gumersindo Lafuente and Lydia Aguirre are appointed deputy directors to boost online content.
• 18/12/2009. PRISA and Telecinco reach an agreement to merge their free-to-air television operations.
• 21/12/2009. El País is the most popular Spanish media outlet on Twitter.