The weaknesses of Spanish communications groups and the challenges they face in the wake of the economic crisis

Abstract

The Spanish multimedia groups that have survived or emerged from the economic, media and advertising crisis of 2007-2014 are quite different from those that thrived before its onset, which had either been forged through horizontal integration processes and had accumulated large press holdings (Unidad Editorial, Godo, Vocento and Zeta) or after convoluted processes of vertical integration had achieved a presence throughout the communications value chain but maintained a significant stake in the television sector (Prisa Mediapro, Atresmedia or Telecinco). The protracted crisis has wrought a number of significant changes within the Spanish communications sector. A prime example is the Prisa group, Spain’s “national champion”, whose total annual revenues in the wake of a long string of divestments have shrunk to levels similar to those the company reported in the early nineties. Within the “mutating oligopoly” that has always dominated the sphere of Spanish communications, the Telefónica group has re-entered the media landscape as a television broadcasting company and the void left by the retrenchment of Prisa has been filled by Planeta and Mediapro. The research presented here was undertaken to provide an analytical overview of the current status of Spain’s major communications groups, the significant changes the communications sector has undergone in recent years and the threats it faces going forward.