Spain

[ES] Parliament Adopts Digital Television Act Bill on Transmission and Retransmission of Sports Competitions and Events

IRIS 1997-5:1/13

Alberto Pérez Gómez

Entidad publica empresarial RED.ES

The draft Digital Television Act (see IRIS 1997-2: 10 and IRIS 1997-4: 14) received final approval from the Spanish Parliament on 17 April 1997. The most important amendment made to it requires the two major groups, PRISA (Canal Satélite Digital) and Distribuidora de Televisión Digital (DTD) to agree on which decoder to use; if they do not reach agreement within two months, the Act will impose the Multicrypt system. The Socialist Party, which voted against approval of the Act, has already expressed its intention to appeal to the Constitutional Court. The Bill to regulate the transmission and retransmission of sport competitions and events is currently being discussed under the urgent procedure. The Socialist Party is against discussing it, while the Izquierda Unida (united left) party holds that the requirement to broadcast unencrypted should apply to other fields as well as sport. Despite the continuing rivalry between the two groups, recent press reports would suggest that the companies are at present holding secret negotiations on the possibility of taking joint action after all, with discussions involving the participation of PRISA (Canal Satélite Digital) in the joint group.