SEPI Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales

The Council of Ministers has approved, through a Royal Decree, the regulations which develop the 2009 Act for Financing Corporación RTVE. These regulations meets the mandate, set in the Act itself, to develop and specify some of the issues included in the Act, basically of a procedural character, for the effective application of the new model for financing the state-owned radio and television.
This model, among other things, sets a yearly budgetary ceiling of 1,200 Million Euros and eliminates the advertisements as a way for financing RTVE. Equally, it forbids the pay-per-view systems, turning the new Corporación into a free and universal-access public service.

Two financial sources

Since this year 2010, financing will be based, on the one hand, on the public income from the State Budget and the income generated by the Reserve Charge for the Radio Electrical Domain, and on the other, on the contributions made by the television and telecommunications operators on the basis of their gross yearly turnover, according to the terms and conditions and within the limits set by the Act itself.
These contributions, both from the State and from the private operators, can only be applied to financing public service contents.

One year after the Act for Financing Corporación RTVE was passed, the Government has approved the regulations which develop it, once the European Commission has stated that the new financing system meets Community law, and especially, the Union Treaty regarding state aid.
With the positive statement from the European Commission, there is no longer any obstacle for the application in full of the financing system. For this to happen, it is required to develop some issues, basically of a technical nature, which allow its effective application. This is the goal of the Royal Decree which has been approved today by the Council of Ministers.

Main features

Generally speaking, these Regulations set the procedures, criteria and mechanisms envisaged for:

• The payment to the Treasury of the annual surplus of the budgetary income in excess of the legal ceiling of 1,200 Million Euros the way, terms and organizations in charge of managing and payment of the Reserve Charge for the Radio Electrical Domain for the benefit of Corporación de RTVE.
• The process for the management and liquidation of the contributions made by the telecommunication operators and by the companies which have been awarded the provision of the television service, and which are required to pay those contributions by law.
• The implementation, the terms and the amounts for the cash advances which the telecommunication and television operators affected must made, as well as the way for setting off in future financial years the excess which might appear when the amount of the cash advances made exceeds the amount of the contribution which they are legally required to make.
• Identifying the payments by the television and telecommunication operators which make up the basis of assessment for the contributions.
• The process for determining the operators of electronic communication services with a state-wide scope or higher than that of an autonomous region.
• The clarification of the audiovisual services whose exploit requires the operators of electronic communication services to contribute to the financing of the Corporación RTVE.
• The deferment or splitting of the yearly contribution of the operators and companies, which the Telecommunications Market Commission -Comisión del Mercado de Telecomunicaciones- might decide on the basis of the financial capacity and the turnover of those affected.
• Determining and return, when applicable, of the amounts paid in case that the ceilings set by law for the contributions made by the television and telecommunication operators were exceeded.
• The provision and use of the Reserve Fund envisaged by the 2009 Act.

The Royal Decree, which constitutes a necessary and required step forward in the reform of the audiovisual industry which is being carried out by the Government, meets the functions, common to all Regulations, of developing, clarifying and completing the Act stipulations. It is a necessary function for the application of a new financing model for the Corporación, whose results are now becoming visible, both in terms of audience and financial stability for Televisión Española, as well as for giving new impetus to the audiovisual industry.