The Spanish government has given the local film industry a boost after increasing the level of required investment from public service broadcaster TVE to 6% of its annual revenue. The changes will be introduced next year.

RTVE, the broadcaster’s parent company, has responded to plans, introduced under the new Audiovisual law introduced last week, saying it will be forced to cut budgets for other parts of its business, which also includes radio.

Under current laws, Spanish broadcasters are obliged to invest 5% of their annual income in Spanish and European film productions. In the past TVE has pre-bought films including Pedro Almodavar’s Broken Embracesand Fernando Trueba’s Dancer And The Thief.

The move follow’s last week’s decision by the Spanish government to ban advertising from two TVE channels and, instead, subsidise the broadcaster through a tax levied on commercial channels and telecoms companies.

Gustavo Ferreda, head of film at TVE, said: “From next year we will have to invest more money in film, which is fine with us, but it means that money will be cut from other departments within RTVE to meet the 6% requirement as we can no longer use advertising revenue to help cover it.”

Under draft legislation sent to parliament earlier this summer, private broadcasters could be required to invest only 60% of the 5% quota in film production and the other 40% in TV productions.

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