OTT audiovisual content platforms (including Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, HBO and Disney) reached 18.9 million subscribers
MADRID, 29 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The telecommunications and audiovisual services sector in Spain closed the 2021 financial year with total revenues of 34,392.94 million euros, which represents an increase of 4.15% compared to the 33,019.78 million euros that it invoiced in 2020 .
The retail turnover of the sector in 2021 was 24,194.7 million euros, which is 3.76% more than a year ago, while wholesale revenue -corresponding to services provided between operators- grew by 5.3% compared to the previous year, up to 10,198.22 million, according to data from the CNMC Telecommunications and Audiovisual Sector Economic Report.
In this sense, the market share of the three main operators in the sector (Movistar, Orange and Vodafone) reached 74.2% of retail revenues. The MásMóvil Group, for its part, already represents 10.8% of the total, after the acquisition of Euskaltel.
The total investment in the telecommunications and audiovisual sector corresponding to 2021 amounted to 7,574 million euros, which represents an increase of 50.7% compared to the previous year. If the amount allocated to spectrum is subtracted, the investment effort was 29% higher than in 2020.
The CMNC highlights that, as in previous years, the main driver of investment continued to be the deployment of new generation access networks and mobile networks.
The volume of fixed broadband connections reached the figure of 16.7 million, with growth of 3.2% and a penetration of 35.3 lines per 100 inhabitants.
At the end of the year, NGA accesses installed in Spain reached almost 78 million. Of these, fiber accesses (FTTH) totaled almost 68 million compared to 59 million in 2020, a figure that represents growth of 15.3%.
90.5% of fixed broadband lines had a speed of 30 Mbps or higher, compared to 86.8% in 2020. 89% of active broadband lines had a speed of 100 Mbps or higher (ultra-fast broadband), five percentage points more than the previous year.
Data traffic on mobile networks increased by more than 43% compared to the previous year and, although in 2021 network operators were already marketing mobile services through 5G networks, their traffic was still residual compared to 90% of the total managed traffic through 4G networks.
Mobile telephony penetration increased 2.4 percentage points to 120 lines/100 inhabitants, while mobile broadband penetration increased 3.5 points to 107.5 lines/100 inhabitants.
Mobile broadband registered 51 million lines, 1.1 million more than in 2020. The majority, 49.4 million, connected to the Internet through a mobile phone.
Advertising revenue from audiovisual services grew by 9% to 1,974.5 million euros, showing a recovery from the decline experienced in 2020.
The number of subscribers to paid audiovisual services continued to increase, although there was a slight drop, of 0.6%, in subscribers to IP TV, cable TV and satellite TV platforms, which together totaled 6.6 million of subscribers.
OTT audiovisual content platforms (which include Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, HBO and Disney) reached 18.9 million subscribers (if we count the number of contracts that pay a periodic subscription fee to the service).
