The main Spanish pay-TV platforms have lost 98,000 clients during Q1
2013. The current financial crisis – in which taxes have increased,
demand has fallen and consumers have less money – is being blamed for
destroying the Spanish pay-TV market.
Canal, which keeps losing subscribers, presented one of the lowest
results of its history: after 28,000 subscribers left in Q1, the biggest
pay-TV platform in Spain now has 1.7 million customers, although it
retains its first ranking position. The only thing that seems to be
currently working for Canal is sports, with Canal Liga and Liga de
Campeones, which broadcasts only football, reporting larger incomes
thanks to sales to other platforms.
The first results for Telefonica's new platform, Movistar TV, are
inherited from Imagenio, says the company, which believes that the
brand's new image and offering will increase subscriber numbers in
future. However, Telefonica´s IPTV lost 51,000 customers during Q1.
Cable company ONO is holding its position better, but the No 2 pay-TV
platform in Spain still lost 19,000 clients. The platform has been
making new agreements over the past few months and is going to focus its
efforts on TiVo, its intelligent television which continues to grow
slowly but surely.
Spain´s pay-TV market is clearly in contraction, but the main platforms
still have over three million customers and there are some reasons to
look hopefully towards the future.