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On 19 June 2013, the European Commission concluded that a Spanish scheme to finance the digitisation and extension of the terrestrial television network in Spain was incompatible with EU state aid rules. The Spanish EUR 260 million scheme was initiated in 2005 to subsidise the transition to digital terrestrial television (DTT) in remote areas of Spain as well as to help finance the operation and maintenance of the DTT infrastructure. The subsidies were allocated exclusively to operators of terrestrial platforms. Alternative transmission platforms such as satellite, cable or the internet did not...

On 14 March 2013, the Comisión del Mercado de las Telecomunicaciones (Telecommunications Market Commission - CMT), found that two national commercial television companies, Mediaset España Comunicación and Gestora Inversiones Audiovisual La Sexta had failed to fulfil their financial obligations in relation to their contributions to the funding of the national public service broadcaster, RTVE (Radio y Televisión Española). In accordance with Law 9/2009, CMT found that self-assessments made by the companies with regard to their financial obligations under Law 8/2009 had been wrongly calculated. Act...

On 8 January 2013, the Resolution of the Comisión Nacional de la Competencia (Competition Authority - CNC) found that the agreement regarding football rights between the two major media corporations Canal+ and Mediapro (August 2012) was not in breach of Spanish competition law. The Authority reasoned that the agreement was not abusive, nor was it restrictive to smaller clubs opposed to the application of the agreement. The audiovisual rights to the Football League and the National Cup are the primary source of income for those clubs that participate in the First or the Second Division of the Football...

Since the funding of the national public service broadcaster, RTVE Corporation, was reformed in August 2009, advertising was eliminated as a source of income and a new tax was imposed on national commercial television companies as well as on national telecommunications operators offering audiovisual services (see IRIS 2010-1/18). The tax to be paid annually by the latter is to amount to 0.9% of their gross operating income, corresponding to their yearly turnover. The telecommunications company Vodafone España S.A.U. announced in 2012 that before January 2013 it would cease to offer television services...

On 14 January 2013, the Supreme Court confirmed the decisions of the Court of First Instance of Barcelona and the Barcelona Court of Appeal ruling that the broadcaster La Sexta had repeatedly infringed the intellectual property rights of its competitor Telecinco by sampling images of Telecinco’s programmes. Therefore, La Sexta was ordered to immediately stop using content and images produced or broadcast by Telecinco. The conflict between the Spanish TV broadcasters, “La Sexta” and “Telecinco” arose in 2008 when Telecinco filed a lawsuit against La Sexta arguing that La Sexta was constantly using...