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Week of July 23, 2018

New government restarts media subsidy payments
the check is in the mail

The Spanish government has provided subsidies to regional news outlets for several years to support local media and languages. The government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy threatened to freeze the media subsidies disbursed in Catalonia late last year and use discretionary powers to monitor news output after quite critical coverage of the region’s independence vote. None of that actually happened, fierce negotiations with publishers ensuing, and Sr. Rajoy was booted out of office in June.

Nearly two months after a change in government, the Catalan press subsidies are starting to be paid. Unsurprisingly, the assistance accrues largely to the printed news media, about €4.2 million. Digital news publishers will receive €1.9 million. The total subsidy for Catalan media is €7.4 million, unchanged from the last two years, reported media news portal dircomfidential.com (July 27). Privately owned local radio and television stations had their subsidies returned in April, €704,000 for radio and €615,000 for TV. (See more about media in Spain here)

Catalan media, along with the rest of the region, is still having a rough time after abatement of hostilities with the Spanish government. The advertising sector suffered, which rippled through media outlets dependent on its contributions. Regional public broadcasters TV3 and Catalunya Ràdio continued to receive support from the Catalan government, about €245 million in 2017. That contribution will be boosted this year to €253 million, €20 million of which comes from the Spanish government, noted El Espanol (July 21).

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