Telefonica is Leading in Broadcast Sports, TV, and Film in Spain

Telefonica is a Spanish multinational telecommunications company, which serves as one of the biggest phone networks on the whole globe. The company provides mobile and fixed telephony, as well as subscription and broadband television in America and Europe.

Telefonica has been investing in a lot of content in the past two years. This past year, the largest growth of subscribers was in Spain, where the company had a 6% year-in-year growth increase in paying tv customers. In 2018, the growth of total new subscribers was 28% more than the growth in 2017. 2018 was also when the Movistar + Original Series content package was available all year round for the first time.

The growth of paid TV subscribers mirrors an investment in original content, original series, and sports. Some believe that it is the combination of all 3 on one platform that helps spur growth in subscribers. This can be seen for example last November, when after a Barcelona-Real Madrid Clásico soccer match, the most prominent subscriptions were a carriage deal for movies and original series and also a movies and Netflix combo.

Telefonica’s subscription deals have supported high-end content like the world premiere of “The Pier,” the period comedy “Arde Madrid,” and Season 2 of the action thriller show “The Plague.”

Access to content for Telefonica is not cheap, as a new deal for rights to broadcast the UEFA Champions League and Europa League during the 2019-2020 through 2021-2022 seasons cost the company 360 million Euros, or 420 million dollars. To offset the cost, they do not bid on sports that are less popular than soccer, which creates opportunities in the market for competitor companies. The buzz around sports, as well as movies and shows, is expected to help sell content subscriptions in Spain.

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