Spain

[ES] Audiovisual Policy of the New Government

IRIS 2004-7:1/15

Alberto Pérez Gómez

Entidad publica empresarial RED.ES

In March 2004, there was a general election in Spain, which was won by the Partido Socialista Obrero Español (the Socialist Party ­ PSOE), which was previously the main opposition party.

The new Government has re-structured the Ministries. The Ministry that was in charge of the implementation, at national level, of most of the provisions related to the audiovisual sector, was the Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología (Ministry for Science and Technology), which acted mainly through its Secretaría de Estado de Telecomunicaciones y para la Sociedad de la Información (State Department for Telecommunications and Information Society ­ SETSI). Since April 2004, the Ministry for Science and Technology has ceased to exist, and the SETSI is now part of the new Ministerio de Industria, Turismo y Comercio (Ministry for Industry, Tourism and Trade).

The new Minister for Industry, Tourism and Trade, Mr. Montilla, recently appeared before the Congress to outline the main points of the audiovisual policy of the new Government. It intends to approve a new Audiovisual Act (a bill might be sent to Parliament by the end of the year). This Act should provide, inter alia, for the creation of a new independent national audiovisual authority. The new Government will also promote the implementation of digital terrestrial broadcasting, and, in the next few weeks, it will approve a Decree implementing the Spanish legislation which obliges TV broadcasters established in Spain to allocate at least 5% of their annual income towards the financing of European films (see IRIS 2001-8: 13).

One of the main problems in the Spanish audiovisual sector is that of the definition and the financing of public service broadcasting. The new Government has decided to create an ad-hoc Council for the Reform of State-owned Media. This Council, whose members are five prestigious academics and experts, has the mandate to provide the Government, within nine months, with a report about the programming, financing and managing structure of the state-owned media. The Government, following the proposals made by this Council, will then present a bill on these issues.