Entrepreneur and TV producer Daniel Domenjó has been named CEO of Movistar Plus+, Spain's biggest national payTV/streaming service, replacing Cristina Burzako.
The appointment was announced by Movistar Plus+ parent Telefónica on Thursday.
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The same reshuffle sees the departure of Sergio Oslé, president of Movistar Plus+ from 2017. Promoted to managing director of Teléfonica Spain in 2021, he continued to champion Movistar Plus+. He is replaced by Javier de la Paz, already a Telefónica board member.
Burzako will remain a board member of brand Movistar Plus+'s official company name Telefónica Audiovisual Digital and will take on new responsibilities in the group.
The massive management overhaul at the Spanish telco has been sparked by the substitution this January of José María Alvárez-Pallete by former Indra Sistemas Marc Murtra as its chairman-CEO.
That change came in turn after Saudi Arabian telecoms group STC announced in 2023 that it had bought 4.9% of Telefonica, signalling its intention to raise that to near 10%. In response, in November 2024 Spanish government holding company SEPI acquired a 9.97% stake in Telefónica and Criteria Caixa, part of Caixa, Spain's second biggest bank, raised its own participation to 9.9%.
An unscripted specialist, Domenjó carved out a reputation as an interviewer and documentarian before working as executive director of the fast-growing Mediacrest Entertainment over 2019-23, where he produced early evening TVE 1 "El Cazador," a Spanish version of classic Granada Studios gameshow format "The Chase," and "Mapi," another gameshow, on TVE1/Clan, adapting Japan's . He left to launch Satisfaction Iberia, which has reversion Dutch formats "The Floor" and "La Conexión."
Movistar Plus+ Stats
After Movistar Plus+ emergence over the last decade as one of Spain's key original production players, just how Domenjó's appointment and new top management under Murtra affects Movistar Plus+ is a huge question for Spanish film and TV. During Burzako's tenure, Movistar Plus+ launched in 2023 a souped up version of its basic tier now priced at €9.99 ($11) a month which means that it is turning a profit. Movistar had made a net 100,000 new adds to its subscriber base over the last five quarters, according to full year 2024 results, announced late February.