Payment platforms such as Netflix, Disney or HBO will replace telecommunications operators in paying the rate that by law obliged the latter to allocate part of their income to finance TVE.

The Government announced today that it modifies the Audiovisual Law that it has in process and whose text until now distributed the obligations between platforms and operators such as Telefónica, Vodafone and Orange, which had to contribute 0.9% of their income to finance the public entity.

The obligation to pay this fee was introduced in 2009 by the Government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero to compensate for the income that RTVE was going to lose by completely suppressing the broadcast of advertising, a decision that was promoted by the audiovisual groups Atresmedia and Mediaset, as well. as for the regional televisions.

The annual payment amounts to around 128 million euros, according to sources from the operators, and throughout the period in which it has been in force, the public television company has received financing for a value of more than 900 million euros. , according to an estimate by the Spanish Association for Digitization (DigitalES), which brings together the main companies in the digital technology and innovation sector in Spain.

But, as has happened in so many economic activities with the digitization of consumption, in this same period of time the audiovisual market has taken a turn with the massive deployment of fiber optics and the commercialization by package operators that include telephony services and digital platforms on the scale of Disney, Netflix, Filmin Amazon Prime, HBO or YouTube, owned by Google. Despite capturing a growing portion of the advertising market, all of them were so far exempted from paying the fee that affects traditional chains and borne by the owners of the infrastructure (and their customers) on which they generate income. Now they must match their contribution and pay TVE 1.5% of their annual income.

The Government's movement coincides with that of the tax on digital platforms launched last year and for now on hold pending an agreement at the European level. The tax rate is 3% and applies to three concepts: the provision of online advertising services; online intermediation services; and the sale of data generated from information provided by the user. The tax on digital services affects companies whose net billing amount exceeds 750 million euros worldwide and whose income derived from digital services affected by the tax exceeds three million euros in Spain. According to the Government, these thresholds "Using objective criteria, they help to ensure that only large companies are taxed and that SMEs are not affected by this tax. "

In this case, the obligation to finance public television companies is not exclusive to Spain either.

At the beginning of June, the new president of TVE, José Manuel Pérez Tornero, already warned that he was going to go to Europe together with the rest of the European public channels so that digital platforms could pay these taxes.

"Why don't these platforms pay fees? We have to assert our voice."

This was his approach after saying that he was going to Brussels with the intention of "lobbying".

In his country, he has already succeeded.

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