Spanish homes spending nearly €90 on multi-play bundles

Spanish households were paying almost €90 a month for ‘quintuple-play’ services – bundles that include fixed and mobile telephony, fixed and mobile broadband, and pay TV – at the end of 2016, according to regulator the CNMC.

According the watchdog’s household panel, the average expenditure by households on electronic communications services soared by 8% in the course of the year, up from €82.40 in 2015.

While the average price of a quintuple-play bundle at the end of 2016 cost €75.30, this does not include the cost of additional mobile lines not included in the bundle, or expenditure in excess of tariff plans. The average cost of basic quintuple-play bundle in 2015 was €64.70.

The household survey found that 86.2% of Spanish homes had internet at home, up from 82.5% in 2015. Some 28.5% of homes took pay TV services at the end of 2016, up from 26.9%.

Some 78.3% of Spanish homes had fixed broadband internet services at the end of the period, up from 73.4%.

In terms of broadband technology – at least in terms of consumer perceptions about the type of service they received – fibre grew fastest, with 42.2% of homes reporting they had a fibre connection at the of the perod, up from 29.6%. Some 48.5% of homes said they had ADSL or VDSL services, down from 57.7%.

Only 12.6% of homes said they received a cable service, down from 13.7%. About 1.6% said they took ‘other’ types of broadband, while 4.9% did not know what type of internet service they received.