The keys of audiovisual law

The law establishes the obligation to “advance financing of European audiovisual work and promotion of linguistic diversity” by television channels and streaming platforms. Specifically, it obliges those operators that bill more than 50 million euros a year to allocate 5% of their income – 6% in the case of TVE- to the production or purchase of rights to European works, of which 70% must be in Spanish or in one of the co-official languages. At a minimum, the latter must account for 15% of that subquota. This means, in the end, , 0.525% of revenue from platforms such as Netflix or HBO and 0.63% from TVE. ERC estimated it at 15 million euros per year.

They may also meet this obligation by allocating 5% of their income to the Cinematography Protection Fund or the Cinematography and Audiovisual Promotion Fund in co-official languages ​​other than Spanish.

If television networks or platforms have income less than 50 million, but more than 10 millionthey will not have the obligation to allocate a part to specific production in co-official languages.

Apart from the obligation to finance new productions, the law establishes that streaming platforms must reserve at least 6% of its catalog for films, series, documentaries… in some of the official languages ​​of the autonomous communities. In the case of national public television, a minimum of 51% of broadcast time must be allocated to European works, of which half must be in Spanish or in one of the other co-official languages ​​of the State. These must represent at least 15% of this subquota. That is, they must dedicate a 3.75% of broadcast time to works in Catalan, Galician or Basque. This last point does not apply to the rest of generalist television channels, such as Antena3 or Telecinco.

An aid fund is created “in order to attend to the promotion and protection of the use of the official languages ​​of the autonomous communities promoting the dubbing and subtitling of audiovisual works“. The rule does not specify the amount with which said fund will be endowed, but it will be made up of the contributions made by the autonomous communities with official language and the State, “according to the budget availability approved annually“.

In addition, the law states that the streaming platforms must include in their catalogs the linguistic versions of those works that have been dubbed or subtitled in co-official languages ​​as long as they do not involve an economic consideration.

Televisions and streaming platforms must dedicate 3.5% of their income to independent production, with the aim of promoting the competitiveness of the sector. However, the PSOE introduced an amendment to the rule that grants the status of independent producer to “the large audiovisual companies”, such as Atresmedia or Mediaset, as long as do not service your own chain. This change has caused the anger of the associations of audiovisual producers and has jeopardized the approval of the standard. United We Can, ERC and EH Bildu voted ‘no’ to the law for this amendment and the PSOE needed the abstention of the PP to get the necessary votes.

Until now, the RTVE corporation is mainly financed from the General State Budgets, but it also obtains income from the rest of the television operators due to the public channel’s renunciation of advertisements since 2009. Specifically, the state channels must provide a 3% of gross income that they get The new General Audiovisual Communication Law extends this obligation to ‘streaming’ platforms, such as Netflix or Amazon Prime, and also to audiovisual content exchange companies, such as YouTube, which will have to collaborate with the 1.5% of your income. These amounts must be paid to RTVE at the end of the year.

The norm is quite lame in terms of measures to seek equality between men and women in the audiovisual sector. The text indicates that “the production of audiovisual works directed or produced by women will be promoted through the call for aid from the Cinematography Protection Fund”, but no specific figure is offered. It only forces television channels, both public and private, and the large streaming platforms to invest 1.05% of income that they obtain -1.26% in the case of TVE- in the production or purchase of rights to works directed by women. The figure is insufficient for women’s associations in the audiovisual sector.

The law also offers a new system for the regulation of advertising. Currently, television networks can broadcast 12 minutes of commercials for every hour, while the recently approved regulation establishes the capacity of broadcast 144 minutes between six in the morning and six in the afternoon and 72 minutes between six in the afternoon and twelve at night. The time is the same, but it will allow televisions to broadcast longer blocks at certain times and reduce them at others. Furthermore, it is established that for every 30 minute slot, you can only cut the programming once. The rules on the content that can be advertised are also tightened.