The European Commission has ruled that Spanish digital terrestrial television operators must return the €260m of state aid that was used to fund the provision of digital TV in rural areas of the country.
The EC argues that the subsidies favoured…
The European Commission has ruled that Spanish digital terrestrial television operators must return the €260m of state aid that was used to fund the provision of digital TV in rural areas of the country.
The EC argues that the subsidies favoured terrestrial digital technology to the detriment of others, notably satellite providers. As such, it ruled that such actions were incompatible with EU State aid rules.
In summing up its decision the commission stated: “The operators of terrestrial platforms received a selective advantage over their competitors using other technologies and therefore have to pay it (the €260m) back to the Spanish taxpayer.”
In 2005, the Spanish government decided to subsidise the transition to digital terrestrial television (DTT) in remote areas of Spain, covering around 2.5% of the population. The public financing also encompassed aid for the operation and maintenance of the DTT infrastructure.
However, those subsidies, worth approximately €260m, went exclusively to terrestrial operators and Spain did not notify this project to the EC.
Following a complaint from SES Astra in 2009, the commission opened an in-depth investigation into the public financing of the DTT infrastructure.
The investigation subsequently found that the Spanish state did not act in a technologically neutral way and offer an open tender for its subsidies. Instead, it exclusively funded the digitisation of terrestrial transmission technology, meaning alternative transmission platforms like satellite and cable could not effectively benefit from the aid.
Apart from this case, the commission has opened an in-depth investigation for two other digitisation cases in Spain. One concerns the implementation of the transition plan in the region of Castilla – La Mancha, where, in addition to a possible technological discrimination, there are allegations of discrimination against regional and local terrestrial platform operators. The second case concerns aid granted to broadcasters for the change of bandwidth. Both cases are still under investigation.
