Pay TV numbers down in Spain but revenues exceed DTT

Pay TV revenues in Spain exceeded those of commercial free-to-air digital-terrestrial channels last year, although both sectors suffered from the impact of the country’s economic crisis, according to the annual report of communications regulator the CMT.

Commercial over-the-air broadcasters on the country’s digital-terrestrial platform turned in sales of €1.666 billion last in 2012, down 17.9% on the previous year, according to the report.

Pay TV broadcaster revenues grew by 2.5% to €1.747 billion, despite pay TV operators losing 351,635 subscribers. Subscription revenue grew by 1.4% to €1.493 billion. Pay-per-view and video-on-demand revenues however fell by 28.9% to €29.9 million.

Including public broadcaster and regional financial support from government bodies, total industry revenues for 2012 amounted to €5.902 billion, down 8.6%, according to the CMT.