Spain'sregional public broadcasters have signed a pact to invest Euros 30m over thenext three years in the acquisition, production and co-production of Spanishfeature films, TV movies, pilots, animated series, pilots and short features.

The dealis a renewal of the accord struck in 1999 between FORTA, an umbrellaorganisation for eight regional public broadcasters, and the powerful Spanishproducers' lobby FAPAE - but this time the net has been widened to include TVmovies and pilots. The figure marks an increase of Euros 1m per year over theold pact - and also includes a new provision of Euros 90,000 per year forscript development.

FORTArepresents eight broadcasters including Catalonia's TVC, Andalucia's Canal Sur,Madrid's Telemadrid, Canal 9 from Valencia, TV Castilla-La Mancha, ETB from theBasque Country and Galicia's TVC. FORTA president Jose Vicente Vallaescusasigned the deal with FAPAE president Pedro Perez yesterday in a move which theindustry hopes will boost the production of TV movies, a sentiment backed bythe new Socialist government which has also said it will extend its fundingmechanisms to include TV movies.

The dealis post-dated from January of this year and runs through to the end of 2006.