Antena 3 chief executive Silvio González (pictured, left) has criticised the Spanish government’s delay in deciding whether or not to legalise a pay-TV service on the country’s digital-terrestrial platform.
Spain's manufacturing, telecommunications and audiovisual industries
are waiting for an official clarification over any possible future
pay-TV model on DTT. But the national government states now that a
decision on the issue is not urgent.
Francisco Ros, Telecommunications State Secretary, said the government
was in no hurry over a possible change of the DTT laws which would
allow broadcasters to launch a pay DTT package.
The delay on making a decision has caused some consternation. National
private broadcaster Antena 3 said once more that DTT is a technical
reality and that its implementation only depends on "political will".
Silvio González, Antena 3’s CEO added that a growth in the number of
channels with the arrival of digital era would “oblige the audiovisual
sector to create a new financial model" relating to pay DTT.
González added that future pay DTT would only survive on a premium
content basis and at a "reasonable" price in order to offer an
attractive offering to the viewer.
So the government’s pay TV policy, and its seeming reluctance to come
to a decision was a "mistake", González said. He compared the
panetration figures of pay-TV in Spain (24%) with those of other
European countries such as France (50%) or the UK (46%). He added that
the pay-TV content market in Spain is at a standstill, growing over
the last seven years by only 300,000 new subscribers to 3.8 million
according to latest figures from the Telecommunications Market
Comission (CMT).
Producer Mediapro, which backs the laSexta national channel, is the
first one interested in pay DTT since it will have soccer broadcasting
rights from 2009 on. The company is working on the creation of a soccer
pay TV channel. Another company with big expectations in this model is
operator Dahlia TV whose business model consists of packaging contents
coming from all broadcasters and offering them at a low monthly cost of
€10 or else on a pre-paid basis with a pay-per-use card.
Antena 3 chief executive Silvio González (pictured, left) has criticised the Spanish government’s delay in deciding whether or not to legalise a pay-TV service on the country’s digital-terrestrial platform.
