The Government has approved this Tuesday the draft General Law of Audiovisual Communication, after the agreement reached with ERC on Budgets, which includes a 6% share of the content of the platform catalog in co-official languages of the State, such as Catalan, Basque and Galician, although it will only be applied to companies that They have their tax headquarters in Spain, so platforms such as Netflix or HBO would not be affected.
This has been indicated by sources from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation to RTVE, after the first vice president and head of this department, Nadia Calviño, gave an account in the press conference after the Council of Ministers of the approval of the standard, that now will go to Congress to start the parliamentary process. ERC, which disagrees on this last point and claims that all companies incorporate said quotas, has announced that it will present amendments.
In this sense, Calviño has stressed that the project may incorporate “improvements” and “adjustments” after passing through the Lower House. “I sincerely believe that after many negotiations and having integrated the positions of all the actors (…) we have achieved a good balance between the promotion of national production, the broadcast in co-official languages and the strong support for the audiovisual sector and the attraction of investment and talent to our country “, he pointed out.
The new audiovisual law will incorporate into Spanish law the European Directive on Audiovisual Communication Services (2018) that extends the regulation that until now existed for radio and television to audiovisual services and content on the Internet, especially platforms for sharing content ( social networks) and video on demand, such as Netflix, HBO Max, Movistar +. Thus, the proposal foresees that they offer, as a minimum, 6% of its offer in Catalan, Basque or Galician, a provision included in the text ‘in extremis’ after the Government’s agreement with ERC to approve the Budgets for 2022.
Specifically, the 30% of European work that must be broadcast, half of this percentage (15%) must be audiovisual content in official languages of the Spanish State and, of this part, 40% must be in Catalan, Basque or Galician, which gives rise to the aforementioned 6%, as established by the new General Law on Audiovisual Communication. For example, in the case of RTVE, Calviño has explained that will have the obligation to reserve 15% of the fee for works in official languages in the autonomous communities.
However, the new regulations will only be applied to companies that have their tax headquarters in Spain, so platforms such as Netflix or HBO would not be affected. The same sources indicate that ERC is already aware of this requirement.
ERC will present amendments to the project
After knowing the approval of the bill, ERC has announced that it is not satisfied with the result and has announced that it will present amendments to improve it and, among other things, try to make companies like Netflix have to apply the quota of production in co-official languages that his party agreed with the Government.
In a press conference in Congress, the spokesperson for the formation, Gabriel Rufián, referred to this when asked about the fact that his agreement with the Executive will not apply to audiovisual platforms that are not based in Spain, such as the Netflix case. The spokesman, who has confirmed that he knows the text that the Government is going to send to Congress, has insisted that this type of multinationals “should not be able to legislate” and he has indicated that his pact with the Executive is “a minimum agreement” and that the text must be improved as it passes through the Cortes.
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The current Audiovisual Law dates from 2010
The current General Law on Audiovisual Communication, which dates from 2010, obliges audiovisual communication service providers, telecommunications operators to also broadcast television channels, and program catalog service providers, to allocate 5% of its operating income to finance European audiovisual works: films for cinema and television, series, documentaries and animated films and series.
With the new law, which has undergone two public hearings, international streaming video platforms such as Netflix, HBO Max, Prime Video, must also comply with this provision, as well as pay 1.5% of their annual income in Spain to help finance RTVE. Instead, the rule eliminates the obligation to finance public television that telecommunications operators previously had.
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