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It seemed that the controversy as regards the Spanish law on digital television had come to an end after the amendments introduced by a Real Decreto-Ley passed last September by the Government in order to comply with the demands of the European Commission (see IRIS 1997-9: 9). But the PSOE, the Spanish Socialist Party, which had already raised the issue of the constitutionality both of the first Real Decreto-Ley on the matter passed in January 1997 (see IRIS 1997-2: 10) and of the subsequent Law of May 1997 (see IRIS 1997-5: 12), as well as of the Law on the broadcasting of events of major public...

On 28 November 1997 Latvia signed the European Convention on Transfrontier Television. When this issue closed, Spain was expected to deposit its instrument of ratification on 19 February 1998. Article 29, paragraph 4 of the Convention stipulates that it shall enter into force in the country concerned on the first day of the month following expiry of a period of three months after the date of deposit of the instrument of ratification, acceptance or approval. The Convention should therefore come into force in Spain on 1 June 1998.

After the adoption of the Private TV Law in 1988, the Spanish Government, then the Socialist party (PSOE), opened a procedure to grant the three licences provided for. Article 19, par 3. of the Act stipulates that no natural or legal person can own, directly or indirectly more than 25% of the capital of a licensee company, so several joint ventures were created to bid for the licences. Finally, four media ventures competed for the three licences: Antena Tres TV (Godó Group, Prensa Española); Gestevisión-Tele Cinco (Berlusconi, ONCE); Canal Plus (Canal Plus France, PRISA Group), and Univisión (Zeta...

The Spanish law on digital television (Ley 17/11997 of 3 May 1997) has had a chequered history, both at national and community level, and which has been closely followed in IRIS (see IRIS 1997-9: 9, IRIS 1997-8: 11, IRIS 1997-5: 12 and IRIS 1996-10: 15). A quick recap of the basic facts is needed. The main point of contention centred around the choice of a single decoding system for deciphering television signals. Canal Satélite and Via Digital, the two operators in the market, each use a different kind of de-coder, simulcrypt for the former and multicrypt for the latter. The first version of...

In June, the party Izquierda Unida (United Left) presented a Bill on media concentration. This Bill proposed an increase of the existing disclosure obligations measures for media companies; introduced press concentration and cross-ownership rules, which at the moment do not have a specific regulation in Spain; proposed the reinforcement of the ownership limits for radio, and especially for national and local TV and for cable TV, this meaning that a company wouldn't be allowed to own, directly or indirectly, more than 25% of the capital of a TV broadcaster; and proposed the creation of a Consejo...