Written by Shona Smith on Jul 5, 2021. Posted in General Interest

Spain aims for 30% increase in audiovisual production by 2025

The plan entitled "Spain: Europe's Audiovisual Hub" is set to receive public investment of more than EUR1.6 billion euros by 2025. Access to funding and tax incentives will see some of the most investment, alongside skills and administrative improvements.

The Spanish Government has set out to boost the national audiovisual sector to make the country a European leader in audiovisual production in the digital age and a cornerstones of Spain's “Digital Agenda 2025”.

The plan involves Government overseen public investment of EUR1.6 billion between 2021 and 2025 in order to encourage a 30% increase in audiovisual. Not only will this support an industry that is important for employment and the economy, it will also enhance the profile of Spanish culture internationally.

A sustainable model

The investment will be used to support a sector which is guaranteed to be sustainable in the future, as stressed by Prime Minster Pedro Sánchez when he presented the plan: "To bring this new ecosystem to life, it needs to be sustainable; it needs to be profitable, self-sufficient and a regenerative source of wealth. We’re looking to harness all the dedication of our creators in pursuit of competitive, commercially successful outputs".
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez stressed the future sustainability of the sector when he presented the plan, "To bring this new ecosystem to life, it needs to be sustainable; it needs to be profitable, self-sufficient and a regenerative source of wealth. We’re looking to harness all the dedication of our creators in pursuit of competitive, commercially successful outputs".

The plan envisages strong investment over the next four years to help the sector pick up the necessary momentum. Once fully competitive in all its different formats, the sector will achieving sustainability thanks to strengths such as a reliable audiovisual industry, well-trained professionals and a globally recognized creative capacity.

Four main areas and three priorities

The audiovisual plan establishes three priorities: to make Spain a hub for attracting audiovisual production, with lower administrative and regulatory costs; to improve business competitiveness through new digital technologies; and to narrow the gender gap. These three overarching priorities indicate the four main areas of the plan.

The first areas will digitise audiovisual production and audience monitoring in order to promote platforms and their distribution to help international marketing. This first step includes a centralised point of information and contact to support potential investors and will be funded with EUR240 million

Access to funding and tax incentives

The second main area consists of facilitating access to funding for projects and applying tax incentives for audiovisual production in Spain. This is the area that will receive the largest public investment, with funding of EUR1.33 billion until 2025.

The third main area, with EUR15 million, will entail adapting training plans to the skills demanded by the industry, and in supporting the training that the companies themselves offer their workers.

The fourth area, which will receive an investment of EUR18 million, includes improving regulation and removing administrative barriers.

Spain is already familiar with hosting international shoots. Not only is it a filming destination for productions such as Game of Thrones, Westworld, and Star Wars but Spanish productions, such as Casa de Papel (Money Heist) and Elite having been popular offerings on Netflix, and the has streamer established a production hub in the capital Madrid.

In 2020 Spain upgraded to 30% for the first EUR1 million of spend, followed by 25% for remaining Spanish spend. Crucially, the new rebate has a much higher cap on total tax rebate per shoot, now set at EUR10 million.

The Canary Islands, which have always had a higher rebate the rebate now stands at 50-45% direct deduction for foreign shoots, if spending at least EUR1 million in expenses in the Canary Islands.