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In December 2005, the Catalan Parliament approved Act 22/2005 on Audiovisual Communication (see IRIS 2006-2: 10). Some of the articles of the were considered controversial because they were allegedly in breach of certain exclusive State competences, and of several Acts approved by the Spanish Parliament containing basic principles to be respected by regional Parliaments. The Popular Party (in the opposition both at Catalan and national level) decided to challenge the Act’s constitutionality. Surprisingly, a second application was filed by the national Government (including members of the Socialist...

On 20 April 2005, the Commission closed the procedures it had initiated, under the EC Treaty State aid rules (Article 88(1)), with regard to the funding system of the Spanish public broadcaster RTVE. It did so after having found that the commitments given by the Spanish authorities ensured a sufficient degree of transparency and proportionality in RTVE’s financing scheme, which ensured the latter’s compatibility with the Single Market for the purposes of Article 86(2) EC. Following the implementation of those commitments (elimination of the unlimited State guarantee and of the exception from corporate...

On 29 July, the Spanish Government approved a new Decree which regulates cable broadcasting and which also deals with other issues related to broadcasting, such as the introduction of Digital Terrestrial TV (DTTV) or the obligations for broadcasters to provide accurate information about the programme planning of their TV channels. As regards cable broadcasting services, their provision was fully liberalised by Acts 32/2003 (see IRIS 2004-1: 11) and 10/2005 (see IRIS 2005-7: 11), but the entry into force of these Acts was conditional upon the approval by the Government of an implementation Decree....

The Spanish Parliament has recently approved a new Act on National Public Radio and TV (see IRIS 2005-9: 10). This approval brings to finality a procedure that started in April 2004, when the recently elected Government created a Council for the Reform of State-owned Media, which delivered its final report in February 2005. This new Act, which abrogates the Statute of Radio and Television (Act 4/1980), seeks to update the basic principles which apply to public radio and television. The Act defines the role of the national public broadcaster: - It shall produce and broadcast several radio and TV...

On 10 May 2006, the Spanish Competition Court sanctioned 5 major film distributors. Walt Disney Company Iberia (Buenavista International Spain), Sony Pictures, Hispano Foxfilm, United International Pictures and Warner Sogefilms were fined EUR 2.4 million each. The Spanish Competition Court also imposed a EUR 900,000 fine on the Spanish Federation of Film Distributors. The Spanish Competition Service opened an investigation into alleged price-fixing and the abuse of a dominant position by these film distributors and also probed the actions of the Spanish Federation of Film Distributors, following...