Spain: International SVoDs must invest €15m in regional language
December 16, 2021
From David Del Valle in Madrid
US streaming services, such as Netflix, HBO Max and Amazon Prime Video, will have to invest €15 million a year in TV and movie productions in Catalonian, Basque and Galician languages as a result of a political deal between the government and the Catalonian party ERC to approve Spain’s annual budget.
Out of the total of 5 per cent that platforms have to award to finance European productions (as stated by the EC for companies with revenues of over €10 million), 70 per cent must be dedicated to “independent productions”. And the €15 million quota stems from that 70 per cent, regardless of where the platforms are located.
The rest of Spain’s pay TV services -Movistar, Orange, Vodafone, MásMóvil, Atresplayer, Mitele, Filmin, among others- will have to meet the 6 per cent regional language obligation as was initially approved by the government.
Another approved measure is a Cinema Protection Fund of €10.5 million that will be given to “the creation of audiovisual content in co-official languages different from Castilian”. This Fund will be managed by Instituto de la Cinematografía y de las Artes Audiovisuales to subsidise cinema titles.
It will be also mandatory to subtitle and dub TV productions in the regional languages.