UTECA reflections on the television market for 2016

The Union of Commercial Televisions (UTECA) puts on the table some reflections for 2016 about television, as the center of an audiovisual sector that moves more than 5.5 billion euros in Spain and is a source of direct and indirect employment for almost 80,000 people.

With the arrival of 2016, the Union of Associated Commercial Televisions (UTECA), the organization that represents and defends the common interests of commercial television stations at the national, community and international level, has reflected on what would be the New Year's Resolutions that should be achieved in the audiovisual sector, also coinciding with the constitution of a new legislature.

As Andrés Armas, general director of UTECA, recalls, “television is the center of an audiovisual sector that moves more than 5.5 billion euros in Spain and is a source of direct and indirect employment for almost 80,000 people.”

The upcoming beginning of a new legislature offers the Legislature and the new Government the opportunity to face important challenges for this sector in a rational, effective and beneficial way for the general interest. In the opinion of 2016, the current General Law of Audiovisual Communication (LGCA) was born outdated and has proven clearly insufficient to guarantee the legal stability of television stations. "Proof of this are the unnecessarily delayed process of releasing the Digital Dividend and the legal vicissitudes caused by regulatory defects that led to the closure of nine DTT channels and endangered another eight. At UTECA we are committed to a reform of the LGCA that strengthens the licensing regime, eliminating unnecessary limitations, and ensuring the reservation for licensees of the radio spectrum necessary to offer citizens a high-quality television service, with the capacity to address the technological evolutions within the framework of a free option,” the employers say.

Spectrum planning and management

Given the position of mobile telephone operators, who demand more spectrum as a key factor, UTECA recalls that different European and global documents have identified this dilemma as fallacious and argue that the social and economic value of DTT more than justifies its maintenance and the viability of an orderly coexistence with other distribution platforms.

“Medium and long-term planning and coordinated action in close public-private collaboration are therefore essential in any process of modifying the current spectral assignment,” says Andrés Armas.

Intellectual property

The Intellectual Protection Law (LPI), recently revised, has been stuck for a long time waiting for certain development regulations.

Without prejudice to the urgent application of the most recent provisions, UTECA considers a general review of the LPI a priority, adapting it to the digital reality and adjusting the multiple rights recognized by Spanish law to the countries around us, without the current excesses that imply double and even triple payments for the same use, as well as the unjustified collection by management entities of remunerations attributed but not remunerated to foreign creators.

Audiovisual platforms

Private television stations with a DTT license are legally obliged to a series of unique commitments of economic relevance. With the emergence of new actors that compete directly with DTT for audience, content and advertising market, it seems more than reasonable to demand a critical review of the conditions required of these alternative platforms.

UTECA maintains that "it does not seem an exaggeration to argue that technological neutrality must entail equity in obligations, both economic and operational, and therefore, a reform is necessary that provides for equal treatment for all forms of distribution, whether open or paid, - because the supply market for audiovisual content is unique, beyond technological differences - considering the incompatibility between financing through advertising with other sources such as public budgets or subscription fees."

Audiovisual production

For more than fifteen years, it has been mandatory for television stations to allocate a significant percentage of their income to financing Spanish cinema. This norm, which is not general in Europe, is legally questioned as doubts have been expressed about its constitutionality by the Supreme Court.

Despite this legal circumstance, this contribution has contributed greatly to the revaluation of Spanish cinema with the contribution in this long period of nearly two billion euros. However, the current norm greatly limits this contribution by limiting the status of television producers to the status of such, relegating them to the status of mere financiers.

According to UTECA, “this anomaly makes it urgent and necessary to review the Cinema Law that grants television networks equal treatment in obligations and rights with film production companies integrated into audiovisual groups classified as independent.”

Public television

Regarding public television, the private ones remember that "RTVE's financing system established in 2009 has been the subject of misinformed criticism, which has attributed the Corporation's problems to the exit of TVE from the advertising market, ignoring that the largest cut in its income has occurred due to the reduction received from the General Budgets. Without forgetting that despite this decrease in income, the RTVE Corporation has not undertaken any targeted restructuring process. to adaptation to a general situation of austerity derived from the economic crisis, an effort that has been key to the viability and sustainability of private operators.”

In the opinion of UTECA "the eventual return of advertising to TVE would mean not only a distortion of the advertising market, and the consequent damage to private operators, but also damage to public television itself, which with its current audience levels, would not be able to obtain from the sale of its advertising spaces a figure similar to that which it now receives from the contributions of the operators. And it is obvious that a financing scheme in which participation in the advertising market and contributions from the operators would not make sense at the same time. operators.”