Spain: Telcos strengthen grip on pay-TV market
September 18, 2026

From David Del Valle in Madrid



Spanish telcos are strengthening their role in the country’s pay-TV market, with 44 per cent of households using paid audiovisual platforms now accessing at least one of them through a package supplied by their Internet provider.

According to data from regulator CNMC, telcos are increasingly becoming popular in serving as gateways to television and streaming content. At the end of 2025, 65.7 per cent of Spanish households with Internet access used at least one paid online audiovisual platform, the highest figure on record and more than two percentage points higher than a year earlier.


Direct subscriptions to streaming platforms remain the most common model, accounting for 59.8 per cent of households using paid audiovisual services. However, the increasing weight of operator bundles reflects the transformation of Spain’s traditional pay-TV business.

Operators including Movistar, MasOrange and Vodafone increasingly combine their own television propositions with third-party services such as Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max and Prime Video, allowing customers to access multiple services through a single telecom package.

The trend is particularly significant in Spain, where convergent packages combining fixed and mobile connectivity with television have traditionally played a major role in the pay-TV market. According to CNMC figures, Spain ended 2025 with 6.7 million packages that included pay-TV.

Streaming is also becoming increasingly fragmented across multiple services. More than 65 per cent of households using paid platforms accessed at least two services, while more than one in five used four or more.

Netflix remained the most widely used paid online audiovisual platform, accounting for 47.2 per cent of households using these services, followed by Prime Video at around 20 per cent and Movistar Plus+ at around 17 per cent.