Spain: 5m+ pay-TV subs
July 27, 2011
From David Del Valle in Madrid
Spain’s pay-TV market has surpassed the 5 million-subscription mark mainly as a result of the significant growth of mobile TV. As of the end of March, the number of mobile TV subscribers grew by 28 per cent to 638,340 an amount that is added to 4,394,441 clients to the traditional pay-TV platforms, reaching a total of 5,033,781 subscribers to pay-TV in Spain, according to data from the country’s regulatory body CMT.
The traditional pay-TV platforms saw their client bases grow by around 285,000 subscribers, with mobile TV accounting for 275,000. Satellite TV recorded a 0.7 per cent growth (although losing 12,940 clients in comparison with the same period last year) to 1,785,905, with a 40.7 per cent of market share; cable 4.2 per cent to 1,376,364, 78,030 more than the same period last year; IPTV, 1.4 per cent (43,218 new clients) to 866,360, with DTT registering the second highest growth with an increase of 5.5 per cent to 366,812 clients.
Prisa TV remained the leader in terms of revenues, accounting for €250.17 million (59.17 per cent) of the total €422.77 million in pay-TV revenues. Cable company ONO and Telefónica recorded €57.28 and €51.95 million in pay TV revenues, respectively, with a market share in terms of revenues of 13.54 per cent and 12.28 per cent, respectively.
Mobile TV services in Spain are provided by Movistar, Vodafone and Orange, with Movistar claiming an 88.5 per cent market share in the first quarter.