Watching Spanish TV can often feel like it’s all just ads, and the actual programmes are the fillers. Why is it that ad breaks in Spain often run for more than 12 minutes?
Spain is undoubtedly a fantastic country. The climate, the food, the history, the traditions, the laid back nature of the people and lifestyle – I could go on here.
That said, there are undoubtedly some drawbacks to life in Spain. For foreigners who’ve made a life here, these often stick out (like why is there dog poo all over the pavement?!) and can be quite jarring compared to the endless positives that come with living in Spain.
Another negative that almost all foreigners here seem to notice and agree on is that Spanish TV has an infuriating amount of adverts.
Whether you’re watching the news, a quiz show, a film, whatever it is, sometimes in Spain it can feel as though the adverts are the show and the programming is actually the breaks.
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For example, early 2020 as Spaniards were confined to their homes during the first coronavirus lockdown, there were as many as 900 hours of TV adverts a week across the channels. As if that time in our lives wasn’t difficult enough.
Often you can suffer through what feels like an eternity of an ad break (6 minutes or more) only for your programme to finally come back for a brief period before the presenter says those fateful words again: volvemos en dos minutos (we’ll back in two minutes) which never, ever seems to be the case.
As a result, this writer certainly feels they do more channel hopping in Spain than they do in other countries. The only other place comparable to Spain is TV in the United States, where it really does feel like the ads are the main event.
Why are TV ad breaks so long in Spain?
As you might’ve already guessed, it comes down to money. More specifically, that the TV networks would rather be fined for overstepping the legal limits on ad time (yes, they exist) than cut back on advertising because, ultimately, the fines are so insufficient that they can earn it back very quickly with a few prime time ad placements.
In short: there’s no incentive for TV companies not to stuff long ad breaks down our throat.
The limit of ads per hour in Spain is supposed to be 12 minutes but Spain’s independent competition regulator the CNMC has opened up investigations against big media companies such as Mediaset and RTVE for surpassing these limits, in the public broadcaster’s case for showing too many self-promo ads.
In November 2021, the Spanish government made the limits more flexible to a maximum of 144 minutes of ads between 6 am and 6 pm, and a maximum limit of 72 minutes between 6:00 pm and 12:00 pm.
A few years ago, the CNMC fined Mediaset €365,301 for violating the Law on Audiovisual Communication (LGCA), which regulates the maximum broadcasting time devoted to self-promotion, advertising messages and teleshopping.
Mediaset appealed, of course, but the Supreme Court later upheld the fine, which was basically for exceeding the legally defined broadcasting time for advertising.
Though the law establishes that no more than 12 minutes of advertising can be broadcast per hour, Mediaset, along with channels such as Telecinco, Cuatro, Divinity and Energy all regularly surpass the limit.
In fact, so keen are the TV companies to get back to the ads, they even regularly skip the credits at the end of the film in order to get back to them.
READ ALSO: Why on earth do Spain’s TV channels always cut out film credits?
Unfortunately, when it comes to la publicidad televisiva, Spanish TV channels have been doing a disservice to the viewers for decades now.
Not only does it waste adults’ time, it also no doubt contributes to children getting to bed too late, as when primetime TV geared towards young people is on, endless ads mean the programme can be drawn out for hours.
