IPTV growth led Spanish pay TV market in Q218

Spanish pay TV revenues attributed to fibre and xDSL operators grew by 15% in the second quarter of last year, with nine out of the country’s 6.64 million pay TV customers taking their subscription as part of a bundle with other services, according to the latest figures released by regulator the CNMC.

Pay TV revenues attributed to fibre and xDSL operators in the country reached €362 million for the quarter to June, up from €314 million for the prior year, consolidating the dominance of IPTV as the main distribution technology. Satellite TV revenues declined from €130 million to €117 million for the same period, while cable TV revenues declined from €70 million to €64 million. The CNMC calculated that online TV revenues grew from €7 million to €12 million.

Overall, pay TV revenues grew from €522 million to €555 million for the quarter. Free-to-air TV revenues meanwhile grew by only 0.8%, taking the total to €506 million.

The pay TV revenue total, while up year-on-year, declined slightly quarter-on-quarter thanks to the end of the football season, and pay TV subscriber numbers also declined quarter-on-quarter by 80,000.

Pay TV channels captured a 4.5% share of the TV advertising pie, with the balance dominated by the country’s main commercial broadcasters Atresmedia and Mediaset.

Spaniards watched an average of three hours and 40 minutes of TV during the quarter, down 20 minutes on the previous quarter.

Digital-terrestrial TV accounted for a 76.4% share of viewing, its lowest to date, while cable and IPTV accounted for 20.9% between them and satellite accounted for 2.7%.