The price increase announced by Netflix this week in Spain may not be due solely to the need to offset the company's extremely high investment in its original productions.
Although the price increase for the service in our country was foreseeable, as it already did just a few months ago in other markets, perhaps Netflix is preparing its piggy bank to contribute to the financing of RTVE and the production of European cinema and culture.
Since advertising on public broadcasters disappeared in 2010, both private belarus phone number television stations and operators with television services that insert advertising must pay a percentage of their income annually: 3% of gross income in the case of the former and 0.9% in the case of the latter.
Until now, streaming services have been exempt from this payment, but the Government is already preparing to adapt the conditions for new operators in the audiovisual market to European standards.
Business has submitted the change in regulations to public consultation with twenty-five questions addressed to the agents involved so that they can make their contributions. The Government's objective is to update the regulatory framework of the audiovisual market and to balance the conditions of all the agents competing in it.
In this way, not only Netflix would be affected by the regulation, but also HBO, Amazon Prime and Sky would be subject to paying between 0.85% and 1.35% of their annual gross income.
A measure that will undoubtedly impact their profit and loss accounts and has already sparked reactions, both among new operators and among traditional agents who have been resorting to the courts for years, without much success, to avoid this payment.