RTVE Financiation. What Remains in a Changing Discussion

Abstract

The European Court of Justice closed, in August 2013, an action by the European Commission on the compatibility of RTVE’s financing with community legislation. The spanish model, approved 2009, which eliminates advertising, envisages that RTVE will obtain 3% of the income of open private television channels, 1.5% of that of subscription channels and 0.9% of that of telecommunications operators that share audiovisual services. However, the national discussion remains open because Redtel, the organization that represents Telefónica, Vodafone, Orange and Ono, appealed to the Supreme Court for a tax as “disproportionate, harmful and illegal”. This research analyzes the current legal framework for television in order to discover what’s changing and what’s stable in the discussion about the funding of public service broadcasting in Spain and Europe.