Search results : 342

The Parliament of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia has passed a new Law on the Consell de l'Audiovisual de Catalunya (CAC) in April 2000. The CAC is a specialized regulatory authority, with responsibilities in the audio-visual sector in Catalonia. The new Law changes the rules on the appointment of the members of the CAC Council, and it also establishes that the CAC will now have new responsibilities (e.g., sanctioning powers, including the power to impose sanctions for violations of the Spanish legislation implementing the "Television Without Frontiers" Directive by those broadcasters under...

The Ministerio de Fomento (Ministry of Development) has approved a new Regulation that implements Part V ("The Public Radio Domain") of the 1998 General Telecommunications Act. The Regulation provides a detailed list of conditions for management of the public spectrum domain and of the procedures for awarding the right to use the public domain. The Regulation also allows for the liberalisation of the broadcasting carrier services, which until 3 April 2000 could only be provided by the public enterprise Ente Público de la Red Técnica Española de Televisión - either directly or through the company...

On 10 March 2000, the Spanish Government decided to renew the concessions awarded in 1989 to the national private broadcasters Canal Plus-Sogecable, Antena 3 TV and Gestevisión-Telecinco for a new ten-years period. The conditions of the concessions will remain the same, with just one exception: these broadcasters must start providing Digital Terrestrial Television (DTTV) services no later than two years after the renewal of those concessions. For these purposes, the National Technical Plan on DTTV reserves a programme service for each of the three private broadcasters in a digital multiplex. These...

The Supreme Court has decided that Decree 991/1998 of 22 May 1998 (see IRIS 1998-7: 11) on the setting up of the Committee for the Broadcasting of Sport Events (hereinafter referred to as "the Committee") is lawful. The main tasks of the Committee are to list sport events of national interest and to oversee the enforcement of Law 21/1997, on the Broadcasting of Sport Events. The Plenary Meetings of the Committee are attended by 52 members-representatives of the different Ministries concerned, the Government of the Spanish regions, sport federations, media enterprises, media trade unions and consumer...

The Spanish Government has recently approved the merger of two of the main Spanish banks, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya (BBV) and Argentaria. This merger affects several relevant markets, including the audio-visual market, in which both banks directly or indirectly participate. The Spanish Government has approved this merger acting as the national competition authority with responsibility for the assessment of mergers that do not have European dimension (Arts. 14 to 18 of the 1989 Defence of Competition Act). The Government has attached to its decision some conditions and obligations intended to minimise...