At a time of growing social sensitivity toward animal welfare and debate over the optimization of public resources, bullfighting in Spain continues to receive a significant injection of taxpayer money. Far from being a self-financed activity or sustained solely by private initiative, public regional television channels—especially in regions under the governments of the Partido Popular (PP) and VOX—have become a fundamental pillar for the survival and dissemination of bullfights, often at a disproportionate cost and with a shrinking audience.
Bullfighting benefits from public subsidies that come from various sources, including European funds (despite the European Parliament’s opposition to funding bullfighting activities that involve the killing of the bull), the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Autonomous Communities, Provincial Councils, and City Councils. It is estimated that public subsidies for bullfighting in Spain amount to around €500 million per year when European and national aid are combined. However, obtaining precise data is consistently difficult. As Aïda Gascón, director of AnimaNaturalis in Spain, denounces, “there is a lot of opacity and a web of figures almost impossible to break down.”
The televised broadcast of bullfights generates significant income from image rights, a matter that the bullfighting sector handles with great opacity. These rights are regulated under the Organic Law of May 5, 1982, which protects the right to one’s own image, allowing the negotiation of the transfer value without setting fixed rates. The value of these rights depends on the importance of the plaza, the poster line-up, the fair, and the expected audience. Broadcasts often substantially raise the channels’ audience share (for example, Canal Sur went from 9% to 18.6%, Telemadrid from 5% to 12%).
Since 2024, the Partido Popular and VOX have redoubled their efforts to reactivate bullfighting broadcasts on several regional television channels, which is clearly a political strategy to reignite a dying tradition. Communities such as Castilla y León, Aragón, the Valencian Community, Extremadura, Murcia, and the Balearic Islands—where the PP governs in coalition with or with the parliamentary support of VOX—have approved 2024 budgets that increase subsidies to bullfighting.
Telemadrid’s multimillion-euro bet
The Community of Madrid, under the presidency of Isabel Díaz Ayuso (PP), positions itself as one of the regions that allocates the most public money to bullfighting. Telemadrid, the regional public television channel, is a clear example of this investment. For 2025, Telemadrid has budgeted €3,102,500 for bullfighting broadcasts, representing a 113% increase compared to 2024 (€1,452,830). This amount adds to the €2,063,807 spent in 2023.
Telemadrid’s investment in the San Isidro Fair is especially notable. In 2025, the channel has invested €2,900,000 in broadcasting 28 events (23 corridas, three novilladas, and two rejoneo spectacles), in addition to the Goyesque corrida on May 2. In other words, the public channel pays nearly €100,000 per event to Plaza 1 (operator of Las Ventas). Although the channel has celebrated that these events achieved audience shares of up to 12% and more than 300,000 unique viewers—exceeding its daily average—the cost per event remains high. Despite the figures, bullfighting entrepreneurs such as Rafael García Garrido and Víctor Zabala of Plaza 1 consider €100,000 per event to be a price “dirt cheap” and “the lowest in history”, suggesting that previous operators like Movistar Toros and Onetoro TV paid more.
Beyond broadcasts, the Community of Madrid allocated €6.3 million to Bullfighting Affairs in its 2023 budget, doubling the €3 million from the previous year. Additionally, it has budgeted €4,163,826 for bullfighting, including an annual salary of €75,084 for a bullfighter serving as Director General of Bullfighting Affairs. In September 2024, Ayuso’s government confirmed direct subsidies of €1,500 per breeding cow (up to €100,000 per livestock farm) and contributions linked to the Rural Development Program of up to €7,000 per operation, plus subsidized loans. It is very important for the public to know how much everyone is paying for these festivities based on animal cruelty.
The return of controversy on Aragón TV
After a decade of absence, Aragón TV has resumed broadcasting bullfights, a decision that has sparked strong protests from social entities and political parties in Zaragoza. The demonstration in front of the Aragonese Radio and Television Corporation (CARTV) headquarters in July 2024 denounced that this practice constitutes clear animal cruelty and goes against the values of a modern and empathetic society. The decision by the government of Jorge Azcón (PP), with the support of VOX, has been criticized for allocating public money to promote bullfighting on the public channel, being considered a “step backward” that endorses violence and animal cruelty, especially during hours protected for children.
Although the cost of broadcast rights has not been made public, Aragón TV shares production expenses with other regional televisions such as Telemadrid, Castilla-La Mancha, and Murcia, which amount to €8,000 per event per channel. The Aragonese Radio and Television Corporation (CARTV) admitted that “it was impossible, due to economic disagreement, to broadcast any of the events of this year’s Feria del Ángel de Teruel.” At the municipal level, the City Council of Zaragoza, also governed by the PP, has signed an agreement with the “Mar de Nubes” bullfighting school for the “promotion of bullfighting,” contributing €20,000 and €5,000 additional for bullfighting activities, totaling €25,000 in public money.
VOX’s push in the Valencian Community
In the Valencian Community, the situation is equally concerning for animal rights defenders. Historically, the region has concentrated the largest number of minor bullfighting events (bous al carrer, bous embolats, etc.) in Spain, with 8,623 events in 2019 and spending of at least €16 million. One in three Valencians is at risk of poverty, and yet the Valencia Provincial Council allocated €1,000,000 to the promotion of bullfighting and €170,000 in COVID aid to fighting bull livestock farms. The Castellón bullfighting school also has a budget allocation of €241,000.
The Valencian government of PP and VOX, presided over by Carlos Mazón, has increased bullfighting funding in the 2024 budgets. The Vice President and Minister of Culture and Sports, Vicente Barrera (VOX), former bullfighter, has allocated €300,000 to the Toro de Lidia Foundation for organizing novilladas in Alicante, Castellón, and Valencia, which has generated criticism for being an organization based in Madrid. Barrera has defended that the money will be used for “cultural activities.”
In the public television realm, À Punt, the Valencian public broadcasting service, whose board is led by PP and VOX, has opened the door to broadcasting bullfights after its 2021 style guide described them as “exhibitions of animal cruelty.” The president of the Valencian Community Audiovisual Corporation (CACVSA), Vicente Ordaz, has stated that “we are not closed” to studying the broadcast of novilladas if they fit the budget and audience criteria, seeking “profitability.” This shift occurs while the channel seeks to increase its audience and has a significantly smaller budget than other regional channels.
Other Autonomous Communities and the broader panorama
The trend of injecting public money into bullfighting extends to other Autonomous Communities. Castilla-La Mancha, despite having a high population at risk of poverty, allocates €1,300,000 to broadcasting bullfights through its regional television channel, CMM. The Junta de Andalucía, governed by the PP, has declared its support and commitment to bullfighting, increasing subsidies to bullfighting schools, aid to the fighting bull livestock sector, and broadcasts of events on Andalucía’s regional television. It has even been reported that the Junta de Andalucía may have delivered €2.5 million of European Funds to the bullfighting streaming platform OneToro, despite its multimillion-euro losses and ownership by a Madrid-based vulture fund.
“The insistence of the PP and the lack of opposition from the PSOE is achieving a silent advance of support for public money for bullfighting,” denounces Gascón. AnimaNaturalis and CAS International have investigated public spending on popular bull events, estimating it at least €42 million in 2019, although the lack of municipal transparency makes it difficult to obtain the real figure, which could be more than double (over €86 million).
The debate over public funding of bullfighting not only focuses on economic aspects but also on ethical and social ones. Bullfighting’s popularity has declined significantly in the last decade, with a 26.5% drop in bullfights held between 2011 and 2022. Despite only 1.9% of Spaniards attending a bullfighting event in 2022, and most municipalities failing to comply with the Transparency Law by hiding their spending data, PP and VOX governments persist in their bet to revitalize this activity with public funds. “European citizens’ money was being directed to this tradition of blood, torture, and death, and that is not only an ethical problem but should be considered a form of fraud,” Gascón expresses in reference to European subsidies. This statement remains relevant today, when millions of euros from Spanish taxpayers continue to be allocated to a practice that, for a significant portion of society, represents animal cruelty and an anachronism.