End to the soap opera on the audiovisual law, born when the draft of the law that the Council of Ministers intended to approve without reserving space for the co-official languages was released and that, later, was mixed, until the end, with the negotiation of the General State Budgets. Finally, the Government and ERC have broken the Gordian knot that both branches were drawing. The final touch, after the progress made by this newspaper last week, has been a last increase in production in Catalan.
Platforms are required by law to offer 5% of anticipated production space. And of this percentage, 70% to independent producers. Of this 70%, the Government offered 10% for Catalan. The agreement has finally been closed at 15%, over 70%, for Catalan.
In addition, the negotiating parties agree to create support funds for the dubbing and subtitling of audiovisual products in the co-official languages. All companies that exceed 50 million profit will contribute to this fund, every year. A minimum of 15 million per year is calculated for this section.
Something that also opens the door for multinationals, which have already shown their full predisposition, to adopt those versions in Catalan (or in Basque or Galician) that already exist. An example could be the series ‘Breaking Bad’, also broadcast on TV-3.
This measure remedies the impermeability of multinationals to the obligation to offer 6% of their catalog in co-official languages, as they are based outside of Spain. Obviously, this obligation would have future overtones, that is, that all that series or film that was dubbed, or subtitled, in Catalan, either for the cinema screen circuit or for its broadcast on TV-3, if it were acquired by Netflix or HBO should be incorporated into the platform’s offer.
Measure-arnica
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This is an arnica measure given the impossibility of subjecting multinationals to the 6% percentage of catalog in co-official languages, because they are based outside Spanish borders. A quota that Movistar and Filmin must meet.
In the first instance, when Vice President Nadia Calviño raised the issue and excluded companies located abroad from compliance with the new law, ERC replied that it was an interpretive question. Ultimately, this has not been the case and the opening of other avenues has meant the tacit recognition that Amazon Prime, HBO and Netflix, among other platforms, could not be tamed in this way.
Reference-www.elperiodico.com