The evolution of the pay TV market and the profile of the subscribers

Abstract

Introduction. The audiovisual landscape has extraordinarily transformed in recent years due to technological and market conditions. Digitalization has created new possibilities for new content providers and audiovisual consumption has changed. Based on theories of substitution goods and competition forces, our analysis will focus on the impact of those structural changes on the nature of subscription services for audiovisual content, and from there, on the socio-demographic profile of the subscriber. Methodology. Data comes from three different surveys made in 2008, 2012 and 2016 in Spain. Results. Findings show that consumer profiles of the new platforms are similar to those of the traditional television subscriber, but there are some changes in terms of age and education. Conclusions. Socio-demographic variables are still relevant for defining subscribers, although the big data defenders tend to highlight behavioural data or purchase data.