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On 13 August 2009, the Spanish Government approved a Decree Law that allows Digital Terrestrial TV (DTTV) providers to introduce pay-TV services. According to the new provision, the concessionaires of the national DTTV services will be able to allocate, fully or partially, one of their DTTV programmes to the provision of pay-TV services, provided their concessions entitle them to manage more than one DTTV programme. The approval of this provision has been very controversial, mainly for formal reasons. The Government intended to approve the introduction of pay-DTTV services by means of a Decree,...

In May 2009, a draft law reforming the funding of the Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española (RTVE), the national public service broadcaster, was presented to the Spanish Parliament. The original text, approved by the Cabinet (see IRIS 2009-6: 10), included the elimination of advertising on Televisión Española (TVE) and proposed a new financial equilibrium that would be achieved through State subsidy and income originating from three different types of taxes: an existing one on the use of spectrum frequencies, and two new ones, to be paid by national commercial broadcasters (both pay and free-to-air)...

Despite the current economic situation, economic aids to Spanish cinema will increase. Specifically, Ignasi Guardians, who recently assumed the management of the Instituto de la Cinematografia y de las Artes Audiovisuales (Spanish Film Institute - ICAA) has decided to increase economic aids to Spanish cinema by EUR 8.6 million. It is striking that, only six months after the initial fixation of these subsidies, they are increased in such a manner, particularly given the worldwide economic crisis, which has caused a strain on the general budget. It is worth highlighting that the Fondo de Protección...

On 19 May 2009, the Spanish Comisión Nacional de la Competencia (National Commission for Competition - CNC) imposed a fine on Abertis, the main operator for signal distribution in the Spanish audiovisual sector, of EUR 22.6 million for “well-established anticompetitive practices in the sector of DTT signal distribution, due to its notorious dominant position in the industry”. A comprehensive analysis of this situation ought to begin in 1988, when the end of the State monopoly in Spanish television led to the creation of three new commercial television operators and the privatisation of the infrastructures...

In April the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce issued a press release announcing the possibility for those national commercial broadcasters interested in offering pay-DTT services to simply apply for a change in their licensing conditions entitling them to do so from that point onwards. Nevertheless, the document goes on to explain that final authorisation will depend on the Cabinet of Ministers approving a previous report of its advisory council, the Consejo de Estado . The announcement has been quite controversial, since the Government is supposed to be working on the presentation...