Madrid Announces COVID-19 Cultural Arts Support Package

MADRID – While Spain’s audiovisual industry anxiously awaits federal relief measures to be approved this coming Tuesday, April 28, the Comunidad de Madrid – the Madrid Region – has announced a €1 million ($1.08 million) investment to generate €40million ($43.14 million) of financial aid for the film, TV and performing arts sectors. Each will receive half the financial facilities generated by the Línea COVID-19 Liquidez Cultural Comunidad de Madrid (Madrid Region COVID-19 Credit Line).

Madrid’s Ministry of Culture, headed by Marta Rivera, announced on Friday morning that the financial aid package will be handled by the Reciprocal Guarantee Society Crea SGR, a non-profit bank guarantee scheme which shares the financial risk and will distribute the funding to production and exhibition companies of stage and audiovisual content which pay taxes in the Community of Madrid.

According to a Ministry of Culture press release, the main objectives of the aid package are to protect employment in the region and provide a level of liquidity to help companies avoid bankruptcy or closure. To that end, companies whose work generates jobs in the Madrid region will be given priority.

Each qualifying company can apply for a credit between €20,000 ($21,570) and €100,000 ($107,830) on a four-year term with an 18-month grace period.

According to the Ministry of Culture, once the entirety of the contribution has been claimed and the impact of the measures on the sector analyzed, future capital injections may be approved based on the effectiveness of the first implementation.

To facilitate understanding and access to the package, the Community of Madrid and Crea SGR will co-host an information day where details of the package and its functionality will be explained along with the procedures for application and repayment.

Madrid has become one of Europe and the world’s busiest hubs for film and TV content creation in recent years, backed by a skilled workforce, low production costs, competitive tax incentives and the ever larger international reach of Spanish-language content.

Before COVID, the biggest problem facing producers in Madrid was securing a first-class crew, as new productions outpaced the area’s talent pool.

In March 2019, The Mediapro Studio opened its doors with an impressive accompanying lineup of 34 in-production TV series. A month later, Reed Hastings was in town to inaugurate Netflix’s own Madrid-based production hub, home to two of the streamer’s most globally popular series, “Money Heist” and “Elite.” Meanwhile, Telefonica’s Movistar Plus continues its torrid pace of new programming, this year already launching strong-performing series such as ETA origin story “La Linea Invisible.”