Spain: the government will tax telecoms and TV to fund phasing out of adverts on TVE

[wsj] The Spanish government has come up with a plan to tax telecommunications operators and private television stations to compensate for phasing out advertising at public station TVE, a Comisiones Obreras union representative said Tuesday.

The plan would levy a 0.9% tax on the gross revenue of telecommunications operators and a 3% tax on the gross revenue of private television stations, the union spokesman said.

The Spanish public broadcaster, RTVE, will have a budget of roughly EUR1.1 billion this year and 35% of it will be paid for with the new taxes, he added. The remainder will continue to be paid with public funding and existing taxes on radio and television frequency use by broadcasters and telecoms.


Spain To Tax Telecoms, TV To Cut Public TV Ads-Union