Through the Spanish Society for Technological Transformation (SETT), the Government of Spain is mobilizing 1,712 million euros to support the consolidation of the sector, boosting Spain's leadership in audiovisual and strengthening the competitiveness of Spanish companies in the global market.
The presentation was also attended by the General Director of Digitalization and Audiovisual Communication Services, Carla Redondo Galbarriautu, who took stock of the first phase of the plan, which has invested more than 1,600 million euros, and the Audiovisual Director of SETT, María Coronado
The session is available on the festival’s Marché du Film video channel
Two years after Spain was ‘guest country of honour’, the Secretary of State for Digitisation and Artificial Intelligence, María González Veracruz, presented at the Marché du Film of the Cannes Film Festival – the largest film market in the world – the new phase of the Spain Audiovisual Hub Plan of Europe, financed by the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR).
With this initiative, the Government of Spain seeks to attract international investment to consolidate the Spanish audiovisual sector, boosting its leadership and strengthening the competitiveness of Spanish companies in the global market.
To this end, as González Veracruz explained in the panel ‘Spain Hub Audiovisual: a model of success and new investment opportunities in the audiovisual industry’, the second phase of the PRTR has launched the new ‘Spain Audiovisual Hub Line’, which is mobilizing funds worth 1,712 million euros.
“Four years ago, the Spanish Government had an idea: we saw that Spain could play an important role in the international audiovisual landscape. That we had the talent, the capabilities and the raw materials to be an audiovisual power. All that was needed was a government that believed in the audiovisual sector as a strategic sector. This idea was concretized in the Spain Audiovisual Hub Plan, which involved 13 ministries and which, for the first time, considered the audiovisual as a tool for transformation, employment, growth and sustainability,” said the Secretary of State.
“The aim of the plan was to make Spain the most outstanding production centre in all of Europe. With a mix of legislative reforms, investments, creativity and public-private collaboration, the plan has worked. Thanks to it, employment has increased, production has multiplied, and Spain attracts more and more filming and foreign investment. Today we are in a position to inaugurate the “second season” of the plan, through innovative policies of support and public investment,” he said.
Investment incentives and access to finance
In this way, the second phase of the plan aims to encourage private investment and improve access to funding for projects related to film, television, content generation, digital culture, as well as the development of multimedia and interactive content, such as video games and visual effects, among others.
These funds, under reimbursable loans or investments, are managed by the Spanish Society for Technological Transformation (SETT), a public business entity attached to the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Function. The line is part of the framework approved in February 2024 by the Council of Ministers to mobilise a total of 40 billion euros in PRTR loans with which to promote the green and digital transition of companies.
Impact of an investment of €1.6 billion
The person in charge of detailing these financial mechanisms at the session, located on the main stage of the Marché du Film, in the building of the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, was the Audiovisual Director of SETT, María Coronado. For her part, the General Director of Digitalization and Audiovisual Communication Services, Carla Redondo Galbarriatu, has announced the balance of the first phase of the Spain Hub Audiovisual Plan of Europe, developed between 2021 and 2024. In total, 1,603 million euros were mobilized.
In this sense, among the actions developed are the aid promoted together with the Center for Technological Development and Innovation (CDTI) to digital technologies and videogames worth 30 million euros; or the aid for projects of experimental development and process innovation through technologies associated to the Metaverse and Web 3 for an amount of 3.8 million.
They also highlight the support for the creation or improvement of digital ecosystems in the audiovisual sector for 25 million euros, boosted with Red.es; the direct grant to the Audiovisual Mutual Guarantee Society Bonds (Crea SGR) for 4.5 million euros; or the grant to ICEX for 20 million euros for the international promotion of the Spanish audiovisual sector and the attraction of filming during the period 2022-2024, among others.
According to Redondo Galbarriatu, the measures implemented have had a positive impact on the Spanish audiovisual sector. The support of the Ministry for Digital Transformation and the Public Foundation, through the grant to Crea SGR, has involved an investment in the sector of more than 142 million euros, allowing vouchers for more than 200 audiovisual projects including films, series, documentaries, video games and animation projects, among others.
It has also given as an example the grant of 20 million to ICEX, which has increased by 400% the number of annual promotional activities for the promotion of audiovisual abroad through fairs, events and trade missions. In particular, it has gone from supporting 463 companies in their internationalization in the triennium 2019-2021, to 2,304 in the period 2022-2024. Thus, Spain has been present as a guest country at the Marché du Film in Cannes, at the Locarno Festival, at the European Film Market in Berlinale, and has increased its presence in hitherto unexplored markets such as Asia, the Middle East, Central Europe and Eastern Europe.
As for indicators, according to the report of the Spain Film Commission ‘Economic impact of incentives to international filming in Spain’, each euro invested in tax incentives to international filming has generated a return of 9 euros in the Spanish economy. It is estimated that these productions generated or sustained an average of more than 7,000 full-time equivalent jobs each year. According to the study, Spain hosted 165 international filming sessions between 2019 and 2022. In parallel, employment in the audiovisual sector has grown by 93% in the last three years. Likewise, Spain has gone from producing 45 series per year in 2018 to 85 in 2022.
The session is available en the video channel of the festive Marché du Filml
