The current economic crisis is banging strongly the mass media all over the world. Media companies are now reacting against what seems to be one of the biggest waves that can sweep them away in its path.
In Spain the main media companies have asked the Government for measures which help their battered economy. Radios with digital license (SER, Cope, Onda Cero, RNE, etc.) want to stop their broadcasting through this technology: public and private operators have to pay 30 million euros to put the digital signal into the air. This would not be a problem if the programmes were listened to someone. But, as most of the people do not have receivers with such a technology, they are unable to do it and so these programmes lack a very needed audience.
On the other hand, private television channels complain against the broadcasting of advertisement by public television channels. Furthermore, they claim a control of the costs for the sports and movies broadcasting rights: they now pay a lot of money for the Champions League or the Motorcycle World Championship. Besides this, they want to abolish the obligation to assign the 5% of their income to the Spanish movie industry.
Also the daily newspapers have appeared with their claims and they ask the Government for the removal of the value added tax for press so that the reading among the youth can be promoted.
Government should always support media industry. Now it has to intensify its attentions because of the crisis. But this does not mean that the media companies can forget their responsibilities. They are in a very competitive market that demands to make a great effort in order to get reliability, quality contents, extreme care of the audience, etc. Many of the competitors have forgotten it and they now are asking the Government for a solution that they should find inside.
Tags: demands, economic crisis, rights, Spanish media, technology
Media Markets Studies 
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