Pay TV in Spain achieves modest growth, Telefónica launches international social network

Pay TV in Spain continued to grow, albeit at a very modest level, last year despite the economic crisis, according to a report prepared by the country’s media and telecoms commission, the CMT.

Pay TV services added 32,540 subscribers over the year to end 2011 with 4.517 million. IPTV and digital-terrestrial pay TV saw growth, while cable, satellite and mobile TV services saw a decline. Canal Satelite saw a decline of 16,671 subscribers to end the year with 1.76 million, while cable lost 44.429 TV customers to end the year with 1.5 million.

IPTV providers added 57,564 customers to end the year with 913,148, while digital-terrestrial pay TV added 36,076 to end the year with 383,738 subscribers.

Separately, Spanish telco Telefónica has launched its Tuenti social network site internationally. The service is now available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Slovak, and Czech versions.

Tuenti, which has about 13 million users, was acquired by Telefónica in 2010 for €75 million. The telco is adding new services to the site, including an integrated mobile messaging app and beta versions of Android and BlackBerry apps. iOS and Windows Phone versions are expectred in the near future.