40% of Spanish Homes Running Pay TV

40% of Spanish Homes Running Pay TV

Most house holds are now paying for TV services

Spain is definitely feeling the success of streaming platforms like Amazon Fire TV and Netflix. The latest research shows almost 40% of households in Spain have pay-to-view TV in some form or another.

This data does include the more traditional satellite and cable services including Sky and Canal+, but it does show how TV habits are changing in Spain, although going to the Cinema is still very popular.

People would never really suggest that terrestrial Spanish TV was any good, so it’s likely not going to become a surprise that the Spaniards, who were once considered to be the biggest illegal downloaders, have grabbed the opportunity to get their hands on something better than they would through regular Spanish TV.

People are also more willing to pay for it than ever. A survey conducted by Onsti, the Spanish Telecommunications Observatory, Spanish homes are spending an average of €22.30 on Pay TV. This suggests that people are paying for more than one streaming platform given that Netflix costs less than €10. They could also be purchasing the more expensive satellite and cable packages that offer more content.

The data from the survey shows that around a third of Spanish homes take advantage of a comprehensive package including broadband internet, TV, fixed landline and mobile phones. This also suggest that the Spanish are getting in line with their cousins in northern Europe when it comes to going digital.

The homes that are on these comprehensive packages spend an average of €68.20 for them, which is pretty good value for money considering what you get included in these packages.

Netflix opened their doors to Spain last year and they have become quite a success in the country, just as it did in all the other European markets it entered.

Spain Introduces “Napflix” TV Channel to Make Siestas more Peaceful

Spain Introduces “Napflix” TV Channel to Make Siestas more Peaceful

More people are now paying for TV

The new online channel Napflix might be a little boring but really that’s the point of this channel; it’s designed to help viewers drift off to sleep.

While Spain is famous for their siestas the Spanish actually have some of the lowest sleeping hours in Europe. The average Spaniard is up at seven in the morning and doesn’t sleep again until midnight. The country has a deeply engrained “work hard, play hard” culture and the siesta is dropping to the side. Now that Spain is beginning to adopt a working calendar more in line with the rest of Western Europe it looks like Spaniards are going to miss out on their sweet nap in the middle of the day.

Things could be changing soon however as two entrepreneurial Spaniards (out of the many Spain has), have created Napflix; a channel that’s designed to get you to sleep faster than any number of sheep ever could.

The channels creators said that everyone understands the feeling of insomnia. It feels like the body is ready for rest but the mind just won’t quieten down. We need to steady our minds and Napflix is the place to do it. It has a selection of only the sleepiest and silent content to calm your brain and send you to sleep.

The first programming schedule of the channel includes a two-hour lecture abou the complexities of Einstein from an esteemed physics professor. There is also a 54-minute long epic that is literally just rotisserie chickens rotating slowly, endlessly…for 54 minutes.

If you’re still awake after that then why not watch some of the 1992 Tour de France? Or some curling? How about the four-hour long World Chess Championship from 2013? If you need something a little more traditional to help you sleep at night then tune into waves lapping against the shore, a slowly burning candle, or the classic cosy fireplace.

One of the creators of Napflix, Victor de Tana, said that YouTube was filled with videos like this and that they were able to put these videos on their channel to help people sleep. He added that he personally finds cricket very boring, but we think it depends on who you ask.

He said that the content on the channel was chosen because it was just so boring, or because it had elevator music.

Sky Challenges Netflix in Spain with NOW TV

Sky Challenges Netflix in Spain with NOW TV

Sky are launching NOW TV in Spain for €10 a month and it looks like they could chip away at Netflix’s control of the market.

NOW TV has been chipping away at the on-demand streaming market and have managed to gain a sizeable share of the market from Netflix.

NOW TV has been competing against Netflix at their own game by offering a broad selection of original content and classic and new motives. They, along with Amazon’s Instant Video Service, have provided some much need competition to the market.

Sky are now gearing up to launch in Spain to challenge the near-monopoly of the market that Netflix has. The Sunday Telegraph are reporting that Sky see Spain as the perfect launching pad for opening up to the European market.

The €10 a month price tag of NOW TV is going to make it an attractive alternative (or possibly a supplement) for Netflix, which has been unchallenged in the Spanish market for a while now. It’s also believed that Amazon will be launching their Instant Video in Spain by the end of the year.

Research from Netflix has suggested that less than a third of Spanish households subscribe to a Pay-TV service, unlike the over two-thirds of British households that do. As such Spain has a large market for on-demand streaming services, even if Spaniards spend more time outside than inside thanks to the weather.

The weather gets colder during the winter though, even in Southern Spain. So millions of Spaniards will find it difficult to resist the allure of staying inside curled up on the sofa watching Netflix or NOW TV.

The cost has always been a factor for why Spaniards don’t purchase Pay-TV but the recovering economy makes the price tag of €10 for hours of entertainment good value.

Sky are taking on some risks by expanding into the Spanish market. Even though many Spanish bars use the Sky logo to advertise the footy they’ve got on the TV Sky doesn’t actually have satellite operation in the country. They made the decision several years ago to avoid trying to compete with the Spanish satellite operators Canal+ and Vivendi.