Bullfights return live to Spanish state television on Wednesday evening, six years after they were banned from the widely watched public channel RTVE. The transmissions were halted in 2006 by Spain's previous Socialist administration, which said they were costly and coincided with key TV viewing hours for young children. But the Socialists were ousted last November by voters outraged over Spain's nose-diving economy, and the conservative Popular Party that won in a landslide is led by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, a staunch bullfighting defender. At Madrid's Las Ventas bullring, a few men queued for tickets on Wednesday, while tourists were shown around the empty stadium. Bullfighting supporters hope the revived national broadcasts will interest more people in the fights, which are seeing older audiences and more and more empty seats at bullrings. Bullfighting has suffered deep cuts over the last several years by Spanish towns and cities that traditionally fund fights during the summer months. Wednesday evening's broadcast from the northern city of Valladolid will feature one of Spain's most famous bullfighters, Julian Lopez - known by his nickname "El Juli". He and other fighters are waiving payments demanded in better economic times for the right to broadcast their battles, a decision that helped Rajoy's austerity-minded conservative government in its drive to get the fights back on national TV. RTVE's communications director Alfonso Nasarre said he suspects the decision to ban the broadcasts in 2006 was "political." "Now we are being accused of having made this decision based on politics too, and I insist that people are free to believe so, but we have actually made it based on accurate audience data that will prove we are right," he said. Wednesday's fight is one of the last of this year's season and RTVE hasn't yet said how many it will air next year, though supporters want frequent broadcasts, especially from the most famous bullrings in Madrid and Seville. But animal rights groups, such as anti-bullfighting organisation AnimaNaturalis, say the live broadcasts are a waste of air time for spectacles squeezed by declining interest driven by generational change and hard times. Sergio Garcia, institutional director for AnimaNaturalis, said RTVE's move was a "backward step." "Being a violent show, and being broadcast in pre-watershed hours, we can only think this is a consequence of the pressure made by pro-bullfighting groups, who are trying to prevent the show, which is rejected by an 80 percent of the population, from disappearing," he said. Despite the six-year halt to live national broadcasts, Spaniards were still able to see bullfights on TV on pay channels and on regional public TV stations that decided to keep up the tradition. Bullfighting is steeped in history, and the centuries-old events that inspired the likes of Goya, Picasso and Hemingway are also popular in Colombia, Ecuador, France and Mexico. Bullfights and related events, such as the annual San Fermin Pamplona bull-runs, are also a multi-million-dollar industry and a major tourist draw. The president of the Union of Bullfighting Supporters Federation, Jorge Fajardo, said the broadcast was a victory for supporters. "There are many TV shows that are much more harmful and disrespectful to people and humanity, many movies that generate violence, while bullfights have no violence at all," Fajardo said. Bullfighting advocates aren't easing up the pressure with their coup of getting the fights back on TV. Last March they presented a petition with 500-thousand signatures to Parliament, demanding that bullfighting be classified as being in the interest of preserving Spanish culture. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/d8e1eacd2b07267e8efac3da223ed0e3 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork

• published: 31 Jul 2015
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