Pay TV subscribers in Spain increase to 6.9 million

In the last year, IP technology added 745,000 subscribers, in contrast to the declines recorded in satellite and cable TV.

The National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) has published the telecommunications and audiovisual statistical data corresponding to the third quarter of 2018.

Los Pay TV subscribers increased by 7.4% in interannual rate up to 6.9 million. In the last year IP technology added 745,000 subscribers, in contrast to the declines recorded in satellite and cable television.

In the third quarter of 2018, revenues from retail services (6,083 million euros) fell 1.3% compared to the same period in 2017 according to statistical data from the National Markets and Competition Commission.

The Masmov!l group increased its retail revenues by 17.4% year-on-year and represented 6% of the total. Movistar maintained its income level and slightly increased its share to 43%, while Vodafone and Orange lost market share. The three main telecommunications operators accounted for 79.8% of the sector's retail income, a percentage slightly lower than the 80.5% for the same period in 2017.

The total of NGA installed accesses or access to new generation networks (which allow very high-speed services such as 4K television) reached 53.8 million, 16.8% more than a year ago. NGA accesses on which some service is provided exceeded 11 million, 19% more than a year ago.

The accesses that grew the most were those corresponding to fiber to the home (FTTH), with 42.9 million accesses deployed compared to 35.2 million in September 2017.

At the end of the third quarter of 2018, of the total 14.8 million fixed broadband connections, those that had a contracted speed of 30 Mbps or higher were 10.6 million, which represents 1.7 million more than in September 2017. 62.5% of these lines had a contracted speed of 100 Mbps or more.

In September 2018, 89.4% of fixed broadband lines belonged to the three main operators, 2.8 percentage points less than a year ago.

If we look at mobile lines (which totaled 54 million), 79.1% belonged to the three main operators compared to 81.7% a year ago.

The total volume of mobile lines that were connected to the Internet, including exclusive data lines, grew by 4.1% year-on-year to 45.8 million. The reason was the increase in voice lines linked to mobile broadband, which totaled 1.9 million lines in the last year, up to 44.2 million, with which 81.8% of mobile lines were connected to the Internet from their terminal.

In September 2018, the Total quadruple and quintuple packages reached 12.1 million, which represents 645 thousand more packages than a year ago. This increase corresponds almost entirely to the quintuple packages.