The impact of new European policies on the regulation of Spanish public service media: a decisive influence?

Abstract

This study analyses the extent to which European legislation and, in particular, the latest regulatory initiatives for audiovisual media and for digital markets and services affect the regulation of public service media (PSM) in Spain. A three-fold analysis is performed using a document review methodology. Firstly, the influence of European competition policies on the origin, development and adaptation of PSM to the digital market is studied. Secondly, the transposition into Spanish law of the 2018 Audiovisual Media Services Directive (EU, 2018) is evaluated. Third and lastly, the impact of the draft European Acts referring to digital platforms on PSM in Spain and the European Union (European Commission, 2020a; 2020b) is analysed, as is that of the European Media Freedom Act (European Commission, 2022). The concept of Europeanisation (Harcourt, 2002) is taken as the basis for the assessment of such impact. The conclusions show that while the European regulatory umbrella is a necessary and influential framework, it is insufficient when it comes to understanding the regulatory and political development of PSM in Spain. The path dependence and circumstances of each country are crucial to understanding the why and how of specific regulation. There is European convergence on economic and competition policy protection issues, but not on political and cultural issues, such as the definition of PSM governance or structure, where the European Union’s influence is much weaker.