Spanish watchdog hits Mediaset with €5MN of fines in a year


Details

Juan Fernandez Gonzalez

| 06 October 2015





Due to its breaking competition, advertising and watershed regulations, Spain's Mediaset has accumulated nearly €5 million in fines from the Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia (CNMC) since Q4 2014.


The media group - which owns free-to-air (FTA) networks including Telecinco and Cuatro - has been fined eight times for issues regarding advertising. It has had to pay a total of €1.68 million for matters such as covert advertising (€1.04 million), exceeding the legal time of advertising for FTA channels (€360,000), and generally breaking the advertising regulations (€281,000).

Also, after being fined in the past for broadcasting Telecinco's gossip shows during children's TV hours, the media group has twice more been fined a total of €442,000 for showing inappropriate films during the afternoon.

In addition, the CNMC last week opened proceedings regarding Salvame, one of the celebrity gossip programmes, for not being suitable for kids.

Cuatro's acquisition in 2010 has also continuously driven competition issues for Mediaset. Since then, the group has accumulated over €15 million in fines for breaking rules regarding market concentration. Two weeks ago, the CNMC decided to fine Mediaset again with €3 million more for trying to use its strength as a major operator to influence advertising contracts.

The question for the commission is how much these fines are actually affecting the group's business, as Mediaset is one of the largest media companies in the country. The group recently announced a net profit of nearly €100 million just for the first half of 2015.