PAP, Audiovisual Platform for Independent Production Companies, is born

AECINE, BACK, MAP, PIAF, BOW y PROFILE have joined forces to found PAP, Audiovisual Platform of Independent Production Companies.

Representing 90% of the country's independent audiovisual production, PAP was born with the desire to share a unified opinion as a sector of independent production. The companies belonging to this union, which encompass genres such as fiction, animation, documentary, entertainment and video games, will fight to improve the conditions of audiovisual production. PAP considers that Spain "is not up to par" with many of its European neighbors, which "have put in place the appropriate means to develop the audiovisual sector as a strategic sector." For this reason, they will carry out different initiatives to achieve the “political complicity” necessary to reinforce “the cultural heritage of the Spanish State inside and outside our borders.”

During its first months of action, PAP will focus its attention on different points of great interest. The platform will promote legislative modifications to the General Law of Audiovisual Communication, the Film Law and Intellectual Property; will request an update on the promotion of audiovisual aid, which involves the analysis for changing the model of the current ICAA, the general budget and the complete aid strategies; and will fight to participate in the configuration and content of the project Spain, Audiovisual Hub of Europe, which they define as the “so-called star project of the Pedro Sánchez government.”

Definition of the independent production company

In his presentation within the framework of the San Sebastian Festival, PAP has emphasized the “unavoidable need” to establish a “clear and real” definition of what an independent production company is, something that does not appear in the current Draft General Law on Audiovisual Communication. "We believe that a producer who has a notorious and sometimes even corporate dependence on a large television company can be of great value to the sector and offer excellent audiovisual works. But it cannot be said that he is an independent production company. The new Law should, therefore, make the definition of an independent producer clearer," the platform points out.

At the same time, PAP defends the need for all public television stations, apart from RTVE, to receive different aid from the State, given that "advertising income has affected all channels and as public television they have to defend social interests that they will hardly be able to achieve without financial aid."