The Spanish commercial TV association UTECA has criticised the “legal jungle” under which online services such as Netflix, Amazon TV, HBO and Sky operate in the country.
Quoted by El Economista when speaking at a celebration of World Television Day, Alejandro Echevarria, the president of UTECA and Mediaset, said that while linear TV is subject to an exhaustive and punctilious regulatory framework, such services operate in a legal jungle with few if any controls and contribute little to the national economy.
He added that creative and cultural industries represent almost 7% of Spanish GDP and generate 5.2% of employment, with TV being the main driver.
On the other hand, new online operators evade taxes and have almost no workforce.
Quoting data produced by the regulator CNMC, El Econonista notes that Netflix has grown specularly in Spain, with the number of users doubling to 1,163,000 households in the first half of this year.
Meanwhile, HBO, which only made its debut last year, already had 414,000 customers as of the end of Q2.
At the same time, Movistar+ had 2 million customers, beIN Connect/TotalChannel 190,000, Amazon Prime Video 175,000, Rakuten TV (formerly Wuaki) 127,000 and Filmin 16,000.
