Contradictions and vagaries in the parliamentary debate on public television in Spain (1990-2010)

Abstract

The advent of private television in Spain from 1990 posed two key crises for public television: an acute funding crisis, due to a fall in advertising revenues, and an identity crisis, since the exact meaning of public service television had not been clarified. These issues were discussed at length by the RTVE Parliamentary Control Committee from 1990 to 2010. The year 2010 saw the entry into force of the law that established the new model of TVE, which stipulated the removal of advertising and defined the broadcaster as a public service. There was a political reluctance of successive governments to undertake real changes, which would imply a high political price, while the parliamentary opposition was intent more on damaging the reputation of the sitting government than on reaching an agreement on a model of public television. In fact, the reforms were eventually imposed by external factors, namely, European directives and the advertising market crisis. This condemned TVE to a complementary, non-competitive role in the Spanish television panorama.