Press Release from Federation of Spanish Audiovisual Producers Associations
FAPAE and DIBOOS consider that the exclusion of the sector in the draft of the General Law of Audiovisual Communication could be the end of animated series in Spain.
In light of the public's favour and the leadership of Spanish TDT thematic channels, with the success of the international market, including the United States, and with a promising future in the exploitation of new models of digital and interactive commercialization, the audiovisual sector still cannot comprehend why animation series are not to receive the same support proposed by the government through the investment of both public and private television stations in cinema, within the new General Law of Audiovisual Communication.
Independently of being the only foreign country capable of having two of its animated films as Oscar nomination candidates in this category with "Planet 51" and "El Lince Perdido", the animation series section is equally brilliant the world over: "Pocoyó", for example, has already been sold to more than one hundred countries; two other productions, “Suckers” and “Kambu”, have been awarded best comedy and preschool series by an international children’s jury in the latest MIPJUNIOR market in Cannes; and the series “Sandra, la detective de cuentos” leads TF1 audiences in France since this summer.
It should be mentioned that, in the draft of the new General Audiovisual Law, the public audiovisual communication service is defined as essential for the “diffusion of content to those citizens and social groups who are not the targets of majority programming”. And Spanish producers believe that animation series must clearly fill this role for the children's and young adult audience.
FAPAE, the Federation of Spanish Audiovisual Producers Associations and DIBOOS, the Spanish Federation of Animation Producers' Associations, believe that the creation of animated series is one of the audiovisual sectors with greatest growth and export volume in the new audiovisual fabric. For that reason, they unanimously demand that the new General Law of Audiovisual Communication contemplates the investment of 1% of the income from television stations in national animation series, something that is already a reality in Catalonia.