Viewership of free-to-air TV in Spain has reached its lowest level because of the increase in subscribers to pay television, according to the latest figures from CNMCData.
At the end of the first quarter of 2018 there were 6.72 million pay TV subscribers in the country, with 69% buying had some kind of extended tier. In the last year the number of pay-TV subscribers has grown by almost 631 thousand.
By platform, the consumption of television, both open and pay television, was distributed in 76.6% for DTT, 2.8% for DTH satellite television and 20.6% for cable TV and IPTV platforms, according to figures from Kantar.
Revenues from pay television grew by 6%, reaching EUR556.6 million in the first quarter of the year. Free-to-air television, with a decline of 4.8%, had a turnover of EUR427.5 million.
Income by platform sees that IPTV has increased 14.7% over the first quarter of last year. Online TV services posted revenues of EUR11.9 million, 62% more than in the first quarter of 2017, although these figures only refer to operators based in Spain, and do not include data from, for example, Sky, HBO, Netflix or Amazon Prime Video.
Pay-TV revenue by technology. (Millions of euros) Source: CNMC
Advertising revenues, including conventional advertising, sponsorship, teleshopping, telepromotion and product placement, amounted to EUR521.1 million (EUR83.4 million for radio and EUR437.7 million for television). Television was broken down into 22.4 million euros for pay-TV and 415.3 million euros for free-access television.
The two main groups, Mediaset and Atresmedia, accounted for 85.1% of total television advertising revenues. This percentage was 89.7% if only the free-to-air segment is taken into account.
The total number of pay-TV subscribers at the end of the first quarter of 2018 was 6.72 million, 137 thousand more than in the previous quarter.
Number of subscribers (in thousands). Source: CNMC
Almost 89% of pay-TV subscribers (5.97 million) had their service contracted under some form of packaging.
Average television consumption during the quarter was 4 hours per person per day, 7 minutes more than in the previous quarter.
By groups, Mediaset and Atresmedia were the leaders, obtaining 28 and 26.9 points of quarterly audience share, respectively.
The two most watched channels during the quarter continued to be the generalist channels Telecinco and Antena 3, with an audience share of 13.2% and 12.5%, respectively.
Screen share by channel and group (percentage). Source: Kantar Media
