The number of Spanish households subscribed to audiovisual platforms grows by 20%

The new edition of the SGAE Yearbook of Performing, Musical and Audiovisual Arts offers basic statistical data to characterize the cultural sector.

The SGAE Foundation presented this Thursday, October 17, the SGAE 2019 Yearbook of Performing, Musical and Audiovisual Arts, a volume that offers basic statistical data to characterize the cultural sector. It is a consolidated research, now in its nineteenth edition, which constitutes one of the basic resources to learn about different areas of the cultural sector.

Ruben Gutierrez, general director of the SGAE Foundation, Pilar Granados, general director of Strategic Market Research Consulting (CIMEC), and Maribel Sausor, director of Research and Development of the SGAE Foundation, have presented the results of the sector and cultural consumption trends in 2018 in a press conference open to the media, held at the SGAE headquarters in Madrid.

The SGAE 2019 Yearbook offers rigorous and detailed information on the main sectors of the Performing, Musical and Audiovisual Arts, with dozens of thousands of numerical data and 350 graphs and statistical tables, some of our own elaboration. It arises as a result of a laborious process of capturing and processing data, compiling sources and analyzing this information. This publication, born in 1999, has already become a fundamental tool for scholars of the Spanish cultural market.

The information collected has analyzed in quantitative and structural terms the following sectors of the cultural panorama: Performing Arts (theater, dance and opera), classical music, modern music, cinema, recorded music, television, video, radio and new technologies. For each section, a report is displayed that analyzes the main data of that sector, highlighting its characteristic aspects throughout 2018, providing elements for comparison with the year 2017, and an evolution trend, to compare the state of the sector with respect to 2008.

Cine

In 2018 the decreasing trend started a year earlier. Except for the number of feature films exhibited, which grew by 4.4% compared to 2017, the other indicators accumulated new losses.

Specifically, the Yearbook observes the following decreases: 0.2% in the number of screens, 1% in the number of sessions, 2.5% in attendance and collection. If we analyze the differences in 2018 compared to 2008, we find greater losses in the number of sessions, with 22.6% less, in attendance, which loses 9.5%, and in collections, which decreases by 7.2%. We once again find an exception, the number of feature films, which has increased by 12.2% compared to that year.

During 2018, a total of 1,951 feature films were shown in 3,812,949 sessions on 3,578 screens attended by 97,661,327 viewers.

Madrid is once again the community with the most attendance, with 19.5% of the state total, 19,064,835 spectators. Next, Catalonia, which with 17,520,332 attendees accounts for 17.9%. In third place, we find Andalusia, with 14,905,158 tickets sold, which is equivalent to 15.3%.

The average number of tickets sold per inhabitant in 2018 was 2,1 (0.1 less than in 2017), a figure that is surpassed by Madrid (2.9), Illes Balears and Comunitat Valenciana (both with 2.4) and Catalonia, La Rioja and Navarra (all three with 2.3).

In 2018, 579,076,127 euros from ticket sales of cinema. Madrid is once again the community with the highest collection, with 126,435,515 euros (21.8%). It is followed by Catalonia, with 19.2%, 111,238,583 euros, and Andalusia, with 14%, 80,795,942 euros. The average price of a movie ticket in Spain once again stood at 5.93 euros in 2018. The following Autonomous Communities exceed this average: Madrid (6.63), Catalonia (6.35) and Asturias (5.97 euros). The average annual expenditure per inhabitant in Spain was 12.39 euros. Madrid (19.22 euros), Catalonia (14.64 euros), Valencian Community (13.63 euros), Balearic Islands (13.44 euros) and Navarra (12.64 euros) exceeded this average.

The highest grossing movie in 2018 it was Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, directed by Juan Antonio Bayona and fifth film in the saga. follows her Bohemian Rhapsody, directed by Bryan Singer and winner of various awards, including two Golden Globes and several Oscars. Thirdly, it appears Avengers Infinity War, directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, third in the saga based on the comics. The Incredibles 2, directed by Brad Bird, is in fourth place and is the highest-grossing animated film of 2018. Finally, in fifth place, we find the film Champions, directed by Javier Fesser, which becomes the highest-grossing Spanish film of 2018.

Video

The SGAE 2019 Yearbook highlights that the video sector is suffering a change in trend that harms the physical and more traditional market. In this way, traditional video clubs continue to close in Spain and some related entities, such as the Spanish Videographic Union, are forced to remain inactive.

However, the evolution of audiovisual files seen in streaming It was positive. In 2018, 40.2% of the Spanish population declared having watched a video in this way in the last week. This data implies an increase of 8.7 percentage points compared to the previous year. On the contrary, the percentage of the population that declared having downloaded an audiovisual file was 6.7% (3.9 points less than in 2017).

The SGAE highlights the boom that the pay television and new platforms, which offer a wide variety of audiovisual content on demand. The percentage of Spanish households subscribed to one of them in 2018 was 63.1% (which implies an increase compared to 2017 of 20.1 percentage points).

Television

It maintains the downward trend in consumption television. In 2018, the average daily consumption per inhabitant falls to 216 minutes, which implies a decrease of nine minutes compared to the 2017 average. Comunidad Valenciana and the group of communities that make up the “rest” category were those that showed the highest consumption, with an average of 236 minutes. They are followed by Castilla-La Mancha (with 229 minutes) and Asturias (with 224). At the other extreme, we find Murcia (with 200 minutes), Catalonia (with 203) and the Balearic Islands (204).

In contrast to the above, the percentage of households that use payment platforms (such as Netflix, HBO, Amazon Prime...) increases, according to CNMC data. According to said entity, during 2018 an annual average of 32.7% was recorded, which implies an increase of 6.5 percentage points compared to the average of the previous year.