Pay-TV giant Sky has announced that it plans to launch an online streaming service in Spain later this year, confirming earlier reports. "During the first half of our fiscal year, we intend to launch a simple and affordable OTT service in Spain, the Eurozone’s fourth largest economy and the market which has the largest free-to-air (FTA) headroom in Europe outside of our existing footprint," said Sky CEO Jeremy Darroch in a statement on the company’s full-year results. Sky's Now TV-branded OTT service is already available in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria and Italy, but the Spanish launch would mark the first time Sky has entered a market where it has no satellite operation.
Sky would have to compete in Spain with the OTT platforms of operators Telefonica, Vodafone and Orange, plus the fast-rising Netflix and HBO, but the market is still relatively untapped, with only around 12 percent of homes with internet access currently subscribing to online pay-TV, according to recent data from regulator CNMC.
