Advanced Television

Spain: Pay-TV spend up 18%

November 27, 2012

From David Del Valle in Madrid

Perhaps proving once and for all that the need to be entertained at home makes TV spending counter-cyclical, it is revealed that over the last year Spaniards have spent 18 per cent more on pay-TV services, largely due to the increase of pay TV fees and pay TV subscribers, according to the latest survey by ONTSI, the National Observatory of Telecommunications and Information Society.

In the second quarter of 2012, Spaniards spent €320 million against €272 million the same period last year. The report reveals that the number of pay TV subscribers stands at 4.16 million in the country, with a penetration rate of 24.2 per cent, 1.4 per cent up against the first quarter of 2012 and 2.3 per cent in comparison with the second quarter of last year.

Satellite TV has 1.2 million pay TV subscribers, up 13.2 per cent against the first quarter of 2012, followed by cable TV with 1.7 million, up 1.3 per cent, and IPTV with 901,000, up 14.34 per cent.

The ARPU in pay-TV services stand at €30.2 a month, up 3.4 per cent. By revenues, satellite pay TV takes the lion’s share with a pay TV spent of €6 out of €10 and total revenues amounting to €194 million in the second quarter, up 22.7 per cent against the same period last year. Total revenues in the second quarter for cable pay TV amounted to €93 million, up 14.8 per cent and for IPTV, €33 million.

The survey reveals that the main reasons for not having pay TV are: the free TV is enough, around 79.5 per cent of households with no pay TV hold this opinion; it is expensive held by 34.8 per cent of all respondents; it is not necessary, 30.7 per cent; and around 22.3 per cent of households say that they do not watch much TV.

Categories: Articles, Broadcast, Markets, Pay TV, Research