Advanced Television

Spain: Small DTTs want carriage compensation

October 15, 2018

From David Del Valle in Madrid

Spain’s small DTT channels are demanding compensation for the “abusive profit” made by Cellnex, the domestic broadcasting agency, which has a monopoly on carrying their signals.

The channels DKiss, Trece TV, Real Madrid TV and Unidad Editorial, members of the TV Association, Asociación Española de TV privadas digitales terrestres, have submitted a proposal to the regulatory CNMC urging it to oblige Cellnex to pay compensation.

The small DTT channels fiercely criticise the fees imposed by Cellnex that drives them to pay the same amount of money as the biggest TV players.

In Spain, all TV operators must pay between €5 million (for an SD channel) and €7 million (for an HD channel) a year to carry their signals. Fees that in the small DTT TVs´ case mean up to 90 per cent of their operational costs whereas as for Mediaset and Atresmedia it represents below 5 per cent of their costs.

The CNMC’s public consultation on the DTT market has paved the way for more competition in the TV carriage business with Telefónica Audiovisuales and Astra hungry to enter the market.

Categories: Articles, Broadcast, DTT/DSO, Policy