Spain: Now streamers must pay for RTVE
June 14, 2021
From David Del Valle in Madrid
Spain is set to eliminate the 0.9 per cent tax on telco revenues and pass the burden to finance RTVE onto global streaming players such as Netflix, HBO and Amazon.
The Spanish government is revising the Audio Visual Law and is set to exempt Spanish telcos from financing the public broadcaster with around €128 million in tax take, according to Expansión.
The Minister of Economy, Nadia Calviño has sought to reduce their financial contributions to boost their investments in 5G. But now the Administration is going further to eliminate the telco tax.
Instead, streaming services will have to foot the bill, along with pay-TV channels and FTA broadcasters. The new legislation is set to be approved later this year. RTVE has raised 10 per cent of its budget from the telco tax.