Spain: Pay-TV penetration down 10%
June 23, 2014
From David Del Valle in Madrid
The free-fall of pay-TV subscribers in Spain continues. The number of homes with a pay-TV service in the country has fallen by 10 per cent to 21.2 per cent.
The latest report from the competition watchdog CNMC reveals that pay-TV penetration is yet to match that of the Internet, with a reach of 69.6 per cent of Spanish households, up 4 per cent year on year.
Even worse, within pay TV, pay-per-view is increasingly becoming less popular with only 1.5 per cent of pay TV homes using PPV or video on demand services. The main reasons cited for not paying for TV services are that the FTA offer is sufficient and that pay-TV is too expensive.
The report highlights that convergent packages (fixed and mobile telephony, broadband and pay TV) are becoming very common in the market with an ARPU between €42.80 in packages with four services and €48.10 with five services.