The Adaptation Strategy for Free-to-Air TV in Spain: Atresplayer Premium and MiTele Plus in the Face of the International SVOD Ecosystem and Changing Viewing Habits

Abstract

In 2015, the Spanish audiovisual market began a period of transformation. Netflix lands in the country and consolidates the streaming and subscription audiovisual consumption business. From 2019, with 53% of Internet users consuming pay TV, a readjustment of the business and content strategy becomes necessary. The current consumption model is changing and with it the business lines of the main television groups in our country, forced to create and formalize new entities to face and position themselves in the international ecosystem. In this study we analyze the models of the national streaming platforms Atresplayer Premium of the Atresmedia group and MiTele Plus of the Mediaset group to determine the state of the conventional agents compared to the international players. We follow a descriptive methodology and content analysis completed with interviews with the heads of both SVOD, contemplating a close relationship between the current breakdown of consumption habits and the consequent destructuring of the sector, and the consequent business decisions that are changing the work of national streaming platforms based on the change in demand for content, raising a progressive and changing business scheme.