After months of preparation and contention with the relevant sectors, the Council of Ministers finally came to an end last December. project Audiovisual Communication Law big telecommunications disappointed. Operators adopt the new standard as a The industry’s historic claim and ‘rate’ stop payment RTVE‘ finance the public institution. But to their surprise, the reform Not valid until 2023 and they will continue to pay this year.
Telecommunications companies sharply criticized the delay in implementing Radio Televisión Española’s financing system reform, and continue to contribute approximately 140 million euros this year They agreed that they would no longer pay. The companies have entrusted themselves to pass the law in parliament to ensure that the ‘RTVE rate’ for telecommunications operators ends this year. But that won’t happen.
Congress has already passed the law without changes at this point, and telecommunications acknowledges that there will be no major changes in the current process in the Senate either. As confirmed by various sources in the telecommunications industry, operators are resigningly admitting that they will have to pay again to finance RTVE this year, not content to celebrate with much enthusiasm that at least this year will be the last and see more than that. unlikely to launch a legal battle to try to overturn this aspect of the law once it comes into effect.
The telecommunications companies assumed that the changes would be implemented this year, thus saving between 130 and 150 million Euros, which they, as telecommunications operators, have contributed every year for more than a decade to finance RTVE. more than 1,500 million euros in total in all this time.
Future legislation will delay the enactment of the new financing model until 2023, which exempts major telecommunications companies from continuing to pay for their roles as operators, but they will continue to pay a much lower amount to own their own television platforms. Telecom has indeed managed to enforce the norm start paying for video platforms like Netflix, HBO, Disney+ anyone Amazon Prime Video.
From the telecommunications industry, they explain, “Operators thought they wouldn’t have to bear that cost this year in a time when the industry’s finances were fragile, in an increasingly deflationary market and revenues were being lost.” . “It’s time to resign ourselves, the last year we have to pay, and the fact that other audiovisual actors who haven’t done so by now are starting to do so is a small step in the right direction. But it would be better if we take this small step this year”.
The employers’ association, which brings together Telefónica, Vodafone and Orange, has been demanding that the Government fulfill its commitments in recent months. Reform of RTVE’s financing model and include a promise to the future General Audiovisual Communications Act that telecommunications will immediately stop paying the ‘RTVE fee’. The Spanish Association for Digitization (DigitalES) even warned that continuing to pay the fee puts the deployment of fiber optic and 5G networks at risk.
The National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) itself acknowledges complaints from telecommunications operators and warns: the contribution requested from them has nothing to do with No benefits have been received by them for the termination of advertising on RTVE.