CNMC strongly sanctions the two large private groups of Spanish television. The National Commission of Markets and Competition has fined Mediaset with 38.9 million euros, while Atresmedia must assume 38.2 million for the same reason, "anti-competitive practices in the commercialization of television advertising."

This is the result of a file that was opened in February of last year and that has the entire audiovisual sector in suspense, because it will change the rules of the game, so the journey ahead is long. In addition, the two companies plan to appeal this resolution from the main supervisor.

According to the CNMC, "commercial policies in the sale of television advertising made by the two television networks violate competition rules." Mediaset controls channels such as Telecinco and Cuatro, while Atresmedia has Antena 3 and La Sexta under its umbrella, among others.

Mediaset and Atresmedia, as the supervisor recalls, have "concentrated on their channels a joint share that exceeds 85% of the entire market." Specifically, according to Infoadex data at the end of 2018, Mediaset brings together 43.3% of television investment and Atresmedia 40.5%, a joint result of around 83.5% in the past year. The audience they monopolize is large, immense, but it does not reach those records (they move around 66%, two thirds of the total), if TVE is excluded, which today no longer hosts commercial advertising.

"The resolution obliges both chains to cease their behavior and adapt their commercial and contractual relations within a maximum period of three months," warns the CNMC, which also warns of future surveillance, which must be provided through documentation and conservation of the "commercial offers broken down" by both operators.

In Spain there are currently 26 DTT channels open nationwide, a sum in which Mediaset has seven and Atresmedia six. In addition, there are numerous local channels, pay-TV platforms and regional networks, which are also based on advertising. Carmen Amores, president of the Forta, federation that groups these last regional chains, has exposed in conversation with EL MUNDO on Tuesday that her business "has been affected" by the force of the two large groups, crossed out by some actors of the sector as duopoly .

The "anticompetitive" practices

The CNMC detects three types of practices carried out by Mediaset and Atresmedia: these two groups have set minimum advertising investment fees for advertisers, which would have forced them to reserve a large part of their campaign budget to these two operators.

Second, CNMC will also eradicate the packaged sale of advertising spaces. The channels of the big groups have associated the campaigns of their small channels to the big ones, so the capacity of the brands and the media agencies they use) is restricted to choose other television channels outside Mediaset and Atresmedia.

This package sale would have been reinforced by the so-called single guideline, a simultaneous broadcast of a commercial on different television networks.

Finally, the coup that settles the CNMC is aimed at the remuneration for extra premiums, an incentive system with which agencies have traditionally been rewarded for placing a guaranteed advertising investment in the channels indicated; that way, the operators were assured of their sales and the media agencies were rewarded extraordinarily for their management and the choice of the two large groups. "The income from the extraprimates has an important weight in the income statement of the agencies," CNMC said in its resolution, already communicated to the operators and exposed by EL MUNDO on Monday.

The chains focus on José María Marín Quemada

The president of the CNMC, José María Marín Quemada, already has his mandate expired, but before a stable government starts the renovation of the supervisor, he wanted to settle this process, in which Mediaset Spain attributes it "animosity" towards the two Large operators

Marín Quemada has led this file, according to different sources consulted by this newspaper, although it has not been easy to achieve the desired unanimity. Last week, the CNMC regulation room finalized its report, which is not binding. This Tuesday, more than a week later, the competition room has managed to put an end to a resolution that had been resisting them during the last weeks.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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