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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...

In the context of economic difficulties for the media industry in Spain (partially due to the general economic crisis, but also to specific factors in the sector), the Spanish cabinet has undertaken a drastic reform: the suppression of advertising on the public television broadcaster, Televisión Española (TVE). Since television started in Spain in 1957, it has always operated following a free-to-air model, with a public sector funded partially by the Government, but essentially through advertising. The introduction of commercial television in Spain in 1989 did not result in a change in this model,...

The Catalonian Government is preparing a new Cinema Act which is expected to be approved before the end of this year. One of the multiple questions that this new proposed act deals with is the one related to the promotion of the Catalan language, in the sense that half of the foreign movies shown in the movie theatres in Catalonia will now have to be dubbed into Catalan (a co-official language in Catalonia together with Spanish). And, in the case of foreign movies shown in their original versions, half of them must be subtitled in the Catalan language too. According to Joan Manuel Treserras (Councillor...

On 23 February 2009, the Spanish Government approved a new Decree Law, whose provisions deal with the introduction of Digital Terrestrial TV (DTTV) and limits to media ownership. In Spain, laws are generally approved by Parliament, but, in case of urgent need, can also be approved by the Government, by means of a “Decree Law”. In this case, the Government has considered that, in the context of the economic crisis and the switch-off of analogue terrestrial TV, there was an urgent need to change the limits to media ownership in order to allow the national broadcasters to reach, within the new limits,...