Advanced Television

Spain: Netflix becomes second largest pay-TV platform

November 25, 2019

From David Del Valle in Madrid

Streaming service Netflix has become the second largest pay-TV platform in Spain, behind Movistar, with 3 million subscribers in the country, according to El Español.
In just four years, Netflix has achieved significant pay-TV penetration, surpassing the combined subscriber numbers of Vodafone, Orange and Euskaltel. According to the CNMC, Movistar Plus has 4.1 million subscribers; Vodafone 1.3 million; Orange 711,000 and Euskaltel 460,000.

It is estimated that HBO has around 1.3 million subscribers, whereas Amazon Prime Video has 1.2 million. The rest of the big VoD players – DAZN, Rakuten TV, FlixOlé and Sky – have have around 100,000 each.

CNMC estimates that a total of nearly 6.3 million homes in Spain now subscribe to a streaming service.

The Spanish government has announced plans to regulate the operations of streaming services in the country – altering the law and imposing on them the same legal conditions as those applied to traditional pay-TV operators. New legal conditions will oblige the streaming services to grant up to 8 per cent of their revenues to finance RTVE (3 per cent) and invest in European TV productions (5 per cent).

Categories: Articles, Markets, Pay TV, Premium, Research, VOD