Inhabitants: 47.35 million (2020)
Religions: Roman Catholic 94%, others 6%
Big cities: Madrid (3.3 million), Barcelona (1.6 million), Valencia (0.79 million), as of 2022
Form of government: Parliamentary monarchy with bicameral system, 17 autonomous regions, two autonomous cities
Head of State: King Juan Carlos (since November 1975)
Head of the government: Pedro Sánchez (PSOE, since June 2018)
EU-member since: 1986
Unemployment rate: 13,33% (2021), 27,16% (2013)
State indebtedness: 2021: 1.43 trillion euros; 2013: 1.026 trillion euros; 2007: 382.3 billion euros
Budget balance relative to GDP: 2021: -7%; 2013: -5,8%; 2009: – 11,2; 2007: +1,2
Share of global GDP: 2021: 1,36%; 2012: 1,7%; 2002: 2,16%

Advertisement costs total: 5.44 billion euros (2021)
Television viewing time per inhabitant: 186 minutes per day (2022)
Large media and communication companies: Telefónica, Grupo PRISA, Unidad Editorial, Grupo Planeta, Grupo Vocento, Grupo Zeta, Grupo Godó, Mediaset.

Overview

In the wake of the general economic and financial crisis, Spain's media system was characterised for years by staff cuts, declining sales and profits, a "press crisis" and government interventions. The dependence of media companies on bank loans and investors from outside the industry increased dramatically during this period. In principle, the example of Spain can be used to analyse how the publishing system proves to be a dependent variable of political and economic structures in times of revolutionary economic crises. The dismissals of journalists at the left-liberal prestige newspaper El Pais, where around 130 reporters and editors were laid off in 2012 - a third of the journalistic workforce. This led to strikes and public protests by the remaining staff. The parent media group PRISA has debts of around three billion euros (net). In March 2010, the investment fund Liberty, headed by the German-American financial investor Nicolas Berggruen, invested around 650 million euros. The 68-year-old CEO Juan Luis Cebrián (annual salary with bonuses: 13 million euros) justified the structural change at PRISA (away from traditional journalism and towards pay-TV and internet business) as follows: "Anyone who doesn't have a Twitter account has no place here anymore. Those over 50 do not have the professional profile for the newspaper model we are aiming for."

It was only in the course of the 2010s that the economic situation of the Spanish media landscape was able to recover somewhat, after numerous layoffs and corporate restructuring. The media market has changed drastically during this time. The traditional print media sector, consisting of newspapers and magazines, in particular, has had to contend with declining readership numbers and dwindling advertising revenues. Many newspapers have been forced to reduce their circulation or even cease operations altogether. The advancing digitization has played a decisive role in this development. Online media, including news websites and social media, have gained in importance and traditional media companies have tried to strengthen their presence in the digital space in order to appeal to a younger target group.

This has led to consolidations and mergers, both within traditional media companies and between digital media providers. A possible merger between major private television broadcasters Mediaset España and Atresmedia has been mooted to cut costs. Prisa, a leading media company that owns El País, has been the focus of speculation about partnerships or sales due to financial difficulties. While traditional mergers have been limited, many companies have increased their presence in the digital space to meet changing media trends.

The financial situation was further affected by the decline in advertising revenues. Economic uncertainties during the economic crisis and in particular the COVID-19 pandemic led to cuts in advertising budgets, which had a negative impact on the media industry's revenues. Smaller media companies in particular are now dependent on state support to maintain their economic existence. However, this dependence on state subsidies is politically controversial as it raises questions about the independence of the media.

Historical Foundations

Spain did not become a parliamentary democracy until 1976, after the end of the era of the dictator (“El Caudillo”) Franco. After the Spanish Civil War, Francisco Franco ruled from 1936 until his death in 1975 and controlled the mass media in the manner of fascism in Germany and Italy (confiscation of republican newspapers, censorship, central professional register for journalists, professional courts for the press). However, 70% of the daily newspapers were left in private hands (conservative publishing families, Catholic Church). Papers such as La Vanguardia (organ of the Catalan bourgeoisie, in the hands of the Godo family of entrepreneurs since 1881) or the monarchist newspapers ABC and La Razón still exist today. In radio too, the Franco administration allowed a number of private stations for companies and social groups that had made pacts with the Francoists, in addition to the state-run “Radio Nacional de Espana”. “Television Espanola”, controlled by Franco’s Ministry of Information, began regular broadcasting in 1956, and from 1959 onwards, under the influence of US advisers, commercial television advertising was also permitted.

One of the main actors in the transformation of journalistic media and their regulation during the Franco era was the "eternal" Manuel Fraga Iribarne (1922 - 2012), who served as Spanish Minister of Tourism and Information from 1962 to 1969. In 1966, under Fraga's patronage, a new information law was created with certain (apparent) liberalizations; however, the newspaper Madrid, which belongs to Opus Dei, was banned in 1968 after it had recommended in May of that year that the French head of state de Gaulle resign "in good time" - which could certainly also be applied to Franco. Fraga, who was head of the autonomous government of Galicia from 1989 to 2005, and other strategists of the modernized Franco regime had realized at the end of the 1960s that Franco's dictatorship was in decline and that Spain would sooner or later have to be integrated into a European democratization process. During the famous era of the "Transicion," the largely bloodless transition from Franco's rule to parliamentary democracy, Fraga even acquired shares in "El Pais," the newly founded flagship of the liberal press (originally conceived by Fraga and his friends as a right-liberal intellectual newspaper). After Franco's death, successful new journalistic establishments of the liberal center were established with "El Pais" and "Diario 16," with "El Pais" developing into a house newspaper of the Spanish social democracy (politically comparable to the Frankfurter Rundschau in the Federal Republic of Germany). The great journalistic moment for “El Pais” came when the paper defended the democratic constitution with a special issue during the coup by the group around Guardia Civil Colonel Antonio Tejero in 1981, even before King Juan Carlos turned against the putschists in a televised address.

"El Pais" is a Spanish media myth in itself, especially in terms of international attention, but it is often forgotten that the majority of Spanish daily newspapers (along with a strong sports and business press) tend to lean towards the right. During the (partial) privatization of Spanish broadcasting (television/radio) and the approval of new commercial stations, it was mainly politically friendly media groups that took part under the governments of Felipe Gonzalez (PSOE, 1982-1996), José Maria Aznar (PP, 1996-2004) and José Luis Zapatero (PSOE, 2004-2011). Gonzales supported the expansion efforts of Canal Plus, while Fraga's Aznar supported those of Silvio Berlusconi's Mediaset, using the financially strong, recently privatized Telefónica. Today (2012), Berlusconi's broadcasting group (Mediaset Espana, including Telecinco and Cuatro, minority share of PRISA) holds pole position in the Spanish television market with a total market share of 28.4%, followed by the Antena 3 group (Antena 3, La Sexta), dominated by RTL-Bertelsmann and Grupo Planeta with 28.2%, then, at a clear distance, the public broadcaster CRTVE group (16.5%), Vocento (4.4%) and Unidad Editorial (3.8%).

media companies and corporations

By far the leading communications group in Spain is Telefónica SA. with total sales of USD 53.67 billion (2023). The global company with subsidiaries in Germany (O2), Great Britain, the USA, South and Central America, Canada and China, among others, employs around 130,000 people and emerged from the state-owned Compania Telefónica des Espana (founded in 1924), which was partially privatized in 1979. Telefónica's main shareholders are Spanish banks. Telefónica's equity capital and technical infrastructure were used to commercially open up the Spanish television market; until 2007, the company also held a 75% stake in the originally Dutch TV production company Endemol, until this too ended up in Silvio Berlusconi's media empire. Telefónica is extensively active as a sponsor in motorsports, cycling and in the football business (Real Zaragoza, Valencia FC). Due to its monopoly position in the Spanish telecommunications market, the company has been subjected to antitrust penalties by the EU Commission on a number of occasions. In 2010, Telefónica CEO Cesar Alierta announced his intention to charge Google and other aggregators for using Telefónica's infrastructure in the area of "network neutrality" and to develop new content strategies of his own. The pay-TV company Sogecable, previously jointly run by Telefónica and PRISA, was taken over by PRISA in 2008 and has since been renamed PRISA TV.

Among Spanish media groups in the narrower (journalistic) sense, PRISA with sales of USD 6.8 billion (2020), according to its own description, “the world's leading Spanish and Portuguese language media group in the fields of education, information and news, and entertainment, thanks to its multi-channel offer of high-quality products.” In addition to its flagship El Pais, Prisa also operates the sports daily As, the business paper Cinco Días and various radio stations (Cadena Ser, 40 Principales. Cadena Dial, Máxima FM, Radio Olé y M80). The portfolio also includes the publishers Alfaguara, Grupo Santillana, Taurus and Aguilar y Suma.

Over the past ten years, the newspaper market in Spain has undergone a noticeable metamorphosis, mainly due to digital transformation and people's changing media usage habits. El Pais, still the dominant daily newspaper, has had to contend with a sharp decline in circulation on the print market in recent years. While an average of over 221,000 copies per circulation were sold in 2015, this figure had fallen to just around 80,000 in 2020. With more than 350 million page views worldwide and over 250,000 digital subscribers, the company now has a strong presence on the online market. In line with the company's policy of greater involvement in the audiovisual market and the meta-medium of the Internet, the group launched El Pais-TV in 2013. Founded in 1972 in the Spanish Transicion by José Ortega Spotorno, one of the sons of the philosopher Ortega y Gasset, PRISA is now controlled by international investors such as Nicolas Berggruen and Carlos Slim Helú. The most lucrative markets and target groups are Latin America and Hispanics in the USA, not so much Spain itself. For some time now, El Pais has been subtitled "El Periódico Global En Espanol". According to the company, the advertising markets in Spain and Portugal are showing signs of recovery. In addition to the publishers Santillana and Alfaguara, the radio station SER, "El País" and Canal Plus, Prisa also owns the Portuguese media company Media Capital. The group is active in 22 countries.

Fig. I: Leading daily newspapers by paid circulation in Spain 2020

Source: Statista (2023)

With a turnover of USD 1.46 billion (2020) and 6,429 employees (2020), the Grupo Planeta based in Barcelona is one of the larger European media groups. Founded in 1949 as Editorial Planeta, under the management of José Manuel Lara Bosch (son of the founder José Lara Hernandez), it publishes the conservative national newspaper La Razón, has a major stake in the Antena 3 TV channel chain and Onda Cero in radio, and operates numerous book publishing companies. The conglomerate, which was founded in 2007, Unidad Editorial is also of immense importance. The group emerged from the merger of Grupo Récoletos and Uniedisa and publishes (2021 sales: USD 536 billion), among others, the national newspaper El Mundo, the sports newspaper Marca (linked to the sports radio station of the same name) and the business newspaper Expansión. The group is 96% controlled (shareholding) by the Italian RCS Group.

Other notable media companies are Grupo Vocento (Madrid), which also publishes the national daily newspaper ABC and the Barcelona-based Grupo Godó, founded in 1998 by the Godó family. Godó controls, among others, the newspapers La Vanguardia (founded in 1981) and El Mundo Deportivo (first published in 1906). In addition, the publishing house Prensa Ibérica known for various regional newspapers and has focused on highlighting local news and stories. Founded by Javier Moll in 1984, the company has its origins in 1978 with the creation of Prensa Canaria, publisher of the morning newspaper La Provincia and the evening newspaper Diario de Las Palmas.

Public broadcasting RTVE was close to bankruptcy for a long time as a result of the financial crisis, but was able to stabilize itself during a crisis-ridden restructuring process. The restructuring was, however, quite controversial - for example, the incumbent conservative Rajoy government pushed through a change in the law according to which the appointment of management positions at RTVE no longer had to be confirmed with a two-thirds majority, but only with a simple majority. During Leopoldo Gonzáles-Echenique's term as RTVE president (June 2012 - September 2014), several prominent journalists and presenters were forced to leave; Javier Gallego, presenter of the critical radio show "Carne cruda" spoke of a "purge" and the European Broadcasting Union denounced the lack of independence. At the public regional broadcaster Telemadrid, 861 of the 1,170 employees were given notice at the beginning of 2012, ahead of the planned privatization; a similar situation occurred at RTVV in Valencia (700 layoffs). The former president of the regional government of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre, had made it clear: “I do not believe in public media,” before she herself had to leave in autumn 2012 following construction and spying scandals.

The public television sector in Spain consists of the channels La 1, La 2, Teledeporte, Canal 24 horas and the children's channel Clan. With TVE Internacional, the public broadcaster also has an international television channel that broadcasts content worldwide. RTVE is active in the radio market through the radio group Radio Nacional de España (RNE), which includes the six channels Radio Nacional, Radio 2, Radio 3, Radio 4, Radio 5 and Radio Exterior. Even though the private groups in the broadcasting sector are more successful in terms of reach, several public channels are still among the most watched television channels and most listened to radio stations in Spain (see Table I and Figure II).

Tab. I: The most watched TV channels in Spain, December 2021

Rank	television station	Parent company	Market share (in %)
1.	Antena 3	Atresmedia	13,8
2.	Telecinco	Mediaset España	13,2
3.	La 1	Televisión Española	9,0
4.	La Sexta	Atresmedia	6,4
5.	Cuatro	Mediaset España	5,1
6.	La 2	Televisión Española	3,1
7.	FDF	Mediaset España	2,5
8.	nova	Atresmedia	2,3
9.	Energy	Mediaset España	2,2
10.	Trece	Conferencia Episcopal Española	2,1

Source: Barlovento Communication (2022)

Fig. II: Listeners of the largest radio stations in Spain between September and December 2022 (in million)

Source: Statista (2023)

Internet

As in many other European countries, the proportion of Internet users in Spain has risen sharply over the past decade. The proportion of households with an Internet connection was 93 percent in 2022. Almost 94 percent of Spaniards used the Internet in 2022, compared to around 70 percent in 2012. This means that the proportion of Internet users was already relatively high at that time compared to other countries in Europe.

According to analysis services, large American online services dominate the list of the most visited websites in Spain. Google, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter share the top spots. However, some Spanish media groups are also represented. For example, the online portal of the sports newspaper Marca of the RCS MediaGroup is in fifth place. El Mundo, the second largest Spanish daily newspaper, is also represented in the top 10 of the most visited websites in Spain (8th place).

Tab. II: The most visited websites in Spain, July 2023

Rank	Webpage:	Description	Parent company
1.	Google.com	Search engine	Alphabet Inc.
2.	YouTube.com	Video portal	Alphabet Inc.
3.	Facebook.com	Social network	Meta Platforms, Inc.
4.	Twitter.com	Social network	X Corp.
5.	Marca.com	sports news	RCS MediaGroup SpA
6.	Google.es	Search engine	Alphabet Inc.
7.	Instagram.com	Social network	Meta Platforms, Inc.
8.	Elmundo.es	News	Unidad Editorial SA
9.	Amazon.es	e-commerce	Amazon.com, Inc.
10.	As.com	sports news	Grupo PRISA

Source: Similarweb.com

media regulation

In Spain, due to the strong autonomy statutes, there is no central media regulatory institution. There are regional authorities such as the Consell de l'Audiovisual de Catalunya and the Consejo Audiovisual de Andalucia (there are 40 employees in three departments). These are responsible, among other things, for the awarding of regional television and radio licenses. In 2008, an Iberian Conference of Regulatory Authorities (CICA) was established, which also includes the corresponding authorities from Portugal (ERC) and Andorra. In a statement from February 2012, the conference stressed in a public statement the necessary independence of such authorities from political influences, especially in times of economic crisis.

The Audiovisual Communications Law (Ley General de Comunicación Audiovisual, LGCA) came into force in 2010. The LGCA establishes the regulation of audiovisual media, including television and radio, in Spain. It aims to promote media pluralism and diversity, ensure access to audiovisual content and protect the rights of users.

The real estate, banking and economic crises as well as the corruption allegations have not only led to sustained public protests against "La Moncloa" (the seat of the Spanish Prime Minister), i.e. against the Rajoy cabinet, but also to a rapid loss of trust in the two major established parties, the royal family and the EU. Paradoxically, this has recently led to a certain return of the Spanish press to its critical and investigative functions. Mariano Rajoy's PP is currently suing not only "El Pais" but also the newspaper "El Mundo" for publishing unverified documents.

Sources/Literature

• Albornoz, L. A., Segovia, A. I., Almiron, N. (2020): Grupo Prisa: Media Power in Contemporary Spain. USA: Taylor & Francis.
• Azurmendi, A., Llorens, C. (2018): Media Law in Spain. Netherlands: Wolters Kluwer.
• Barlovento Communication (2022): Monthly Analysis of TV Audience – December 2021.
• Medialandscapes (2023): Spain.
• Pérez Rufí, José Patricio (2020): Estructura del mercado audiovisual en España: apuntes para una introduction”. In Suing, Abel; Kneipp, Valquiria (eds.). Olhares sobre a imagem em movemento. Aveiro: Ria Editorial.
• Similarweb (2023): Most visited websites in Spain, July 2023.
• Statista (2022): Number of people listening to the leading general radio stations in Spain between September and December 2022.
• Statista (2023): Leading daily newspapers ranked by paid circulation in Spain in 2020.