International Productions in Spain Generated $1.5 Billion in Direct Spend Over 2019-22 – Report

SAN SEBASTIAN — Released Sept. 21, Netflix’s latest data dump for first half 2024 estimated that non-English stories were “hugely popular,” making up early a third of all its viewing. Titles from Spain led the way, Netflix claimed, citing “Society of the Snow” (104 million, “Berlin” (49 million), “The Asunta Case” (31 million) and “Raising Voices” (25 million).  

Little wonder that at €1 billion, Spain ranked second in Europe, after the U.K., in 2023 in global streamer investment on original content, according to a European Audiovisual Observatory report this month.

Now a just presented report on Sunday at the San Sebastián Film Festival has added another wrinkle to estimates of the vast moneys moved by Spain’s film and TV industries.

From the Spain Film Commission, in collaboration with Profilm, Spain’s association of line producers, and conducted by Olsberg·SPI, the report, entitled the Economic Impact of International Productions in Spain, is the first study of the total knock-on economic effect of foreign shoots in Spain. 

It is based on data of 165 productions benefiting over 2019-22 from Spain’s tax rebates for international productions filmed in Spain. 

These productions spent a minimum of €1.32 billion ($1.47 billion) in the Spanish audiovisual economy over this period, which in turn generated an estimated minimum of €1.8 billion ($2.4 billion) in Gross Value Added (GVA) contributions to the national economy.

Every Euro invested in the sector via international production tax incentives generated a return of nine Euros in additional GVA. 

“This is the case because the economic impact of these productions is not limited to direct spending within the strictly audiovisual industry, but extends in an extraordinarily widespread manner throughout the entire national economic fabric. The analysis identifies that a substantial portion of production expenditure is allocated to sectors outside the audiovisual industry,” an executive summary of the report commented.

Productions created or sustained an average of 7,080 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs each year across the Spanish economy during the period 2019-2022. Of these jobs, approximately 1,300 were directly generated by the productions. “The remaining 5,780 jobs were supported in the supply chain and the wider economy through wage spending effects from employees,” the summary noted. 

Total accumulated remuneration for employees who worked on incentivised international productions amounted to €989.9 million ($1.1 billion) – 55% of the GVA. The lion’s share of that, moreover, went to “indirect and induced impact.”

Breaking down expense on a high-budget film, the report estimated that 74% of below-the-line production spending went to other sectors, such as construction, hospitality, transportation, and location fees. “This indicates that audiovisual production has a much broader economic impact than might be expected, benefiting a variety of economic sectors.”

Spain’s audiovisual production boom “is not only explained by traditional characteristics or by new global trends, such as the increase in content production for streaming platforms, but also by the adoption of political initiatives and government support aimed at developing the sector,” the summary concluded. 

The report’s fundings were greeted with jubilation at a presentation Sunday in the San Sebastian Film Festival. 

“This isn’t the success of a government of a sector, but the success of the whole of Spain’s society. We are achieving that the audiovisual sector is becoming a true motor of industrial growth and job creation,” said María González Veracruz, Secretary of State of Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructures.

More to come.

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