CNMC assesses 2015 content financing performance of operators

Spanish competition watchdog the CNMC has completed its assessment of how well the country’s TV operators and broadcasters met their obligations to finance European and Spanish content in 2015.

The country’s audiovisual media law requires telecom operators that provide TV services and TV operators to devote 5% of their annual revenues to financing European films and TV series, rising to 6% in the case of public companies.

According to the CNMC, 17 companies – Cableuropa/Ono, Mediaset, Telefónica, CRTVE, Atresmedia, Orange, Multicanal, Walt Disney, NBC Universal, Fox, Veo TV, 13TV, Net TV, Cosmopolitan, Sony Pictures, Viacom, History Channel – exceeded the threshold in 2015, while one, DTS/Canal+ failed to meet the minimum required.

The regulator requested more information from three companies – Telefónica, because of the complexity of its offer and the need to separate out which revenues came from its sports offering, Mediaset, which needed to supply more information about the activity of its FDF channel, and Orange, where further work is required to make a full year-on-year comparison with 2014.

The law stipulates that 60% of funding destined for production from the operators should be for cinematic works, of which 60% should be in one of the official languages of Spain. For public companies, the relevant proportions are 75% and 60% respectively.

The 2015 assessment follows hard on the heels of the CNMC’s publication of a report on how operators and broadcasters shaped up in meeting their obligations in 2014, which found DTS to be in deficit to the tune ot €7.4 million. The company has since been acquired by Telefónica, which has committed to spending significant sums on Spanish drama.