This Thursday, Telefónica carried out a profound remodeling at the top of its content division, Movistar Plus, by dismissing its CEO, Daniel Domenjó, just thirteen months after his appointment. The group’s executive president, Marc Murtra, has appointed to replace him Alfonso Gómez Palacio, a veteran of the company who until now led the operations of Telefónica Hispanoamérica.
The move, approved in an extraordinary session of the board of directors, puts an end to the stage of Domenjó, whose appointment in March 2025 was Murtra’s first big bet to replace José María Álvarez-Pallete. The departure of the manager, who came from the independent production sector, occurs in a context of growing tension over the strategic direction of the platform and the balance of power within the group.
Corporate profile
The election of Alfonso Gómez Palacio represents a shift towards operational management and financial control. Gómez Palacio, a Colombian national, has a two-decade career in the company, where he has held positions of high responsibility, including the direction of and, more recently, the management of the entire Latin American region (excluding Brazil).
Under his leadership, the Latin American division achieved margin stabilization and capital structure optimization through the partial sale of fiber assets and the consolidation of strategic alliances. Sources close to the company indicate that Murtra seeks to replicate this efficiency model in Movistar Plus+, which faces a highly competitive content market and constant pressure to make sports rights profitable, especially football.
The speed of Domenjó’s dismissal and the profile of the new appointments have generated a series of interpretations in the market. The replacement occurs under the presidency of Marc Murtra, whose arrival at Telefónica in January 2025 was directly linked through the State Industrial Participations Company (SEPI), which holds 10% of the capital. Sector analysts point out that this change could respond to a need to align the content subsidiary with the new roadmap set by the public shareholder.
The power network is completed with the figure of Javier de Paz. In March 2025, Murtra appointed De Paz non-executive president of Movistar Plus+, a position that he combines with his role as deputy director of the group’s presidency since October of the same year. De Paz, former general secretary of Socialist Youth and personal friend of the former president of the Government José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, is perceived by the market as the main link between the operator and the PSOE.
The dismissal of Daniel Domenjó completes the sweep of the previous structure initiated by Murtra last year. In March 2025, the new president had already dispensed with , the previous CEO, and Sergio Oslé, who was the architect of the content strategy during Álvarez-Pallete’s presidency.
Domenjó arrived with the mission of boosting its own production and opening the platform to new formats, but its profile, external to Telefónica’s traditional culture, seems to have clashed with the priorities of the new presidency. Internal sources suggest that the “lack of harmony” in budget execution and in the policy of acquiring external rights were the triggers for his departure.
With the arrival of Gómez Palacio, advanced by The EconomistTelefónica expects not only tighter cost control, but also a more organic integration of content with the rest of the group’s global operations. However, the sector is cautiously observing whether this “corporatization” of Movistar Plus+ will reduce its creative capacity compared to giants such as Netflix or Disney+.
Investor reaction is yet to come. Although Gómez Palacio is a respected executive for his track record in Latin America, three CEOs in three years raises doubts about the continuity of original production projects, such as fiction series and large-format documentaries.
The group plans to present its quarterly results next month, at which time Gómez Palacio must break down his plan for Movistar Plus+ and clarify whether there will be new adjustments in the Fiction, Sports and Entertainment departments, areas that were also remodeled just twelve months ago. For now, the official message is one of “operational continuity,” although the depth of change suggests otherwise.
