Expansion of the core business of traditional media companies in Spain through SVOD services

Abstract

The strategic importance of the internet for television became evident in the early 2000s, even destabilizing its very concept and finally resulting in convergence towards a profound transformation of the sector. The introduction of global over-the-top (OTT) media services into local markets has led to strategic changes in multimedia groups. This study considers the subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services of Atresmedia and Mediaset España, the two main traditional media organizations in Spain that form a duopoly in the country’s commercial television sector, with the aim of understanding and evaluating their positioning strategy in this market and the results obtained through the diversification of their core business. Based on an analysis of their content, price, and promotion policies and the results in terms of subscriptions and revenues, slight differences emerge regarding the strategy and scope of these two groups in their own environment in the sector. They compete for customers to achieve growth in the audiovisual market while seeking to retain a cross-media, multiplatform audience, as well as expand their core business of commercial linear television against a background of a reduction of advertising spend on television and the expected increase of hybrid financing models.

The production of Spanish fiction series for SVOD: evolution, trends and strategies

“…Indeed, the giants of the streaming market in Spain, led by platforms such as Netflix and HBO, have forced generalist television channels to rethink their content programming strategies and planned flows (Heredia-Ruiz, Quirós-Ramírez & Quiceno-Castañeda, 2021). Thus, these channels have reformulated their approaches, among other things, by retrieving their products to distribute them on their own platforms in order to counter the offer of large SVOD providers (Komissarov & Sánchez-Narvarte, 2019;Alcolea-Díaz et al, 2022) they have influenced the strategic approach of other operators, especially pay-TV operators such as Movistar+, which has included the production function among its main tasks, becoming a producer as well as a distributor (Pérez-Rufi, Gómez-Pérez & Castro-Higueras, 2020, p. 397). This competitive scenario has meant that the response of the major pay platforms in Spain has been a commitment to original and exclusive production, a constant feature in recent years in platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and HBO, which has already been evident in other works (Hidalgo-Marí 2020;Hidalgo-Marí et al, 2021).…”

COVID-19 Lockdown and Disney+ strategy on social networks on its launch during the State of alarm in Spain

“…Not only do social networks enhance the viewing experience (Segado-Boj, Grandío & Fernández-Gómez, 2015), but they also help to increase audience engagement (Cha, 2019;Martínez-Sánchez et al, 2021). Conventional television channels and Over The Top (OTT) services such as Netflix have recognized the potential of social media in attracting and retaining subscribers (Alcolea-Díaz et al, 2022). These digital platforms use social networks to promote their content and engage with viewers, and this trend is expected to continue as social media continues to play a growing role in the entertainment industry.…”