Spain's Media Revolution: TV, Internet, and Postal Liberalization

The Transformation of Spanish Television

The mass media experienced significant changes, particularly marked by the high growth of television. The introduction of television coincided with the infrastructure decade of the sixties. Infrastructure now allowed the signal to reach much of the territory, and the sale of receivers reached important figures.

The TVE monopoly lasted until the establishment of autonomous television channels. Current political changes necessitated the creation of these autonomous channels. In Spain, two open broadcast channels (Antena 3 and Tele 5) and one pay-TV channel (Canal+) were established.

Since then, the privatization process has been accentuated by the creation of media platforms and pay-per-view services. These forms of television broadcast a coded signal, requiring the user to hire a decoder provided by the company itself.

Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) was the latest step in the evolution of television in Spain. Analog television was replaced by digital imaging, offering higher quality and elevated levels of interactivity.

Internet Penetration and Regional Disparities

Currently, the most used connections are broadband, with flat-rate ADSL and 24-hour models being the most habitual. Data from the National Institute of Statistics show the existence of significant regional imbalances in penetration rates.

The highest percentages of internet penetration are found in:

• The Community of Madrid
• Catalonia
• The Balearic Islands
• The Basque Country

Communities with lower penetration include Extremadura, Castile-La Mancha, and Galicia. Overall, the use of the Internet in Spain offers lower rates than those of other developed countries.

Liberalization of Postal Services in Spain

The state postal service has moved from a monopoly situation, affected by the trends of liberalization promoted by the EU over recent years. In Spain, the sector is now fully liberalized.

Postal delivery is now the responsibility of companies specializing in courier and express delivery of correspondence. The EU objective was that by 2011, postal services would be fully liberalized in member countries.

Certain traditional services, such as letters, are waning due to the development of other private information channels, including:

• Email
• Video conferencing
• Chat