Spain: Now pay-TV outperforms FTA
July 8, 2013
From David Del Valle in Madrid
Spanish pay-TV is outperforming FTA TV in terms of revenues. For the first time in its history, pay-TV turnover exceeded FTA TV revenues in 2012, according to the annual report from the CMT, the Telecommunications Market Commission.
Total pay TV turnover amounted to €1.7 billion in 2012 surpassing FTA TV revenues of €1.6 billion. Pay-TV revenues increased by 2.5 per cent against the previous year, FTA TV’s fell by 17.9 per cent.
Satellite pay-TV platform registered the highest revenues with a rise of 8.4 per cent to €1.067 billion. Mobile TV and IPTV increased their revenues by 14.6 per cent and 11.6 per cent, respectively, whereas cable and pay DTT experienced a fall of 11.6 and 19.3 per cent respectively.
Nevertheless, pay-TV platforms lost 351,636 subscribers, down 7.5 per cent. As of December 2012 pay-TV in Spain had 4.3 million clients, with satellite taking 41.3 per cent, followed by cable with 32.7 per cent, IPTV with 18.8 per cent and pay DTT with 7 per cent. IPTV experienced the highest fall in subs losing 126,566 subscribers, followed by cable with 97,665 and pay DTT with 93,157.
As a whole the Spanish Audiovisual business registered €3.7 billion in revenues (€5.9 billion including state subsidies), down 8.8 per cent against the previous year.