The media business

📈 The media business

How much the media are read, watched and listened to in Spain, what they live on and how many people work in them. Audiences come from the Estudio General de Medios, advertising from the InfoAdex study, and employment and turnover from the business statistics of INE and Eurostat. All figures are per inhabitant and adjusted for inflation, in 2025 euros. What public administrations pay the media is covered in Public money in the media.

How much is read, watched and listened to

In 2025, 108 in every 1,000 inhabitants read a print newspaper each day, 12.5 % of those aged over 14. The series peaked in 2008, at 42.1 %. Until 2017 the EGM counts print only; from 2018 it adds those who read the newspaper's digital replica (PDF or viewer).

Reading has not disappeared: it has moved online. In 2025, 30.5 % of those aged over 14 visited a newspaper's website every day, compared with 12.5 % who read one in print; adding both, 39.6 %. Television reaches 80.5 % of the population every day and radio 55.0 %.

Each person aged 14 or over watches an average of 186 minutes of television a day and listens to 89 minutes of radio. Television peaked in 2003, at 246 minutes.

The most-read print newspapers

Daily readers of each newspaper in print and digital replica in 2025, compared with 2009. It does not include those who read the newspaper on its website.

What they live on: advertising

In 2025 advertisers spent 128 € per inhabitant in conventional media (television, press, magazines, radio, internet, outdoor and cinema), adjusted for inflation. The peak was in 2007, at 252 €. Print daily newspapers have gone from 59.8 € per inhabitant in 2007 (24 % of spend) to 7.3 € in 2023 (6 %), and television from 109 € to 38 €, while internet reached 62 €.

In this long series "Newspapers" is print only, and all digital advertising, including that on newspapers' websites, goes under "Internet", which includes Google, Meta and the other platforms. Since the 2025 study, InfoAdex adds each medium's digital share to it and separates search engines, social media and other websites. On that basis, in 2025 daily newspapers and Sunday supplements earned 413 million euros from advertising on their websites and 338 million in print, and social media and search engines took 30 % of all spend.

How many people work in the media

Persons employed (employees and self-employed) in the companies of each branch according to the structural business statistics. In 2024 newspaper publishing employed 13,154 people, radio stations 5,418, television broadcasters 7,215 and news agencies 1,392. Eurostat only gives these branches separately from 2016 (with a methodological break in 2021).

To go back to 2005, broader branches have to be used: radio and television together, and all publishing (which includes books and software). Radio and television have gone from 76 persons employed per 100,000 inhabitants in 2008 to 26.

Compared with Europe

In 2024 Spain had 27.1 persons employed in newspaper publishing per 100,000 inhabitants, against an EU average of 51.4 (rank 15 of 23 countries with data). In radio and television, 26.0 against 31.7.

The large media groups

Revenue, advertising, profit and staff of Spain's large media groups according to their own annual accounts, per inhabitant of Spain and in 2025 euros (adjusted for inflation). Between 2007 and 2025, the 5 groups with data for both years went from earning a combined 232 € per inhabitant to 66 €.

They do not all measure the same thing: Prisa includes education (Santillana), and its drops in 2014, 2019 and 2020 are business sales (Digital+, Media Capital and Santillana Spain); Unidad Editorial (El Mundo, Marca, Expansión) is the Spanish division of the Italian RCS MediaGroup, which does not publish its net profit or, since 2016, its headcount; and Mediaset España (Telecinco, Cuatro) has been a division of MFE-MediaForEurope since 2023, with no net profit of its own and its staff counted as full-time equivalents.

Advertising

Advertising weighs far more for the television groups than for the press groups, which also live on copy sales, subscriptions and other businesses; and for television it weighs less and less.

Staff and profits

Net profit is the profit attributable to each group's shareholders. Prisa's losses in 2014 (2,237 million current euros, 60 € per inhabitant) are off the scale of any chart, so the results are shown in the table.

Public money compared with the advertising market

To put public money in the context of the size of the business, the chart divides what the State and its companies spend on advertising campaigns, and what RTVE and the regional broadcasters receive, by total media advertising spend in that year. In 2025 central government advertising was equivalent to 2.7 % of media advertising spend. In 2025 public funding of the broadcasters was equivalent to 39 % of all that spend and 137 % of television advertising.

These magnitudes do not measure exactly the same thing: InfoAdex estimates what the media receive for advertising space, net of discounts, whereas the cost of central government campaigns includes creative work, production and, it seems, VAT. The funding of public broadcasters is not advertising, but it is money entering the same audiovisual market. Funding of the regional broadcasters is only available from 2017, and advertising by regional and local governments is missing, as only some of them publish it.

Methodology and sources

• Audiences: AIMC, Marco General de los Medios en España 2026 (free publication with data from the Estudio General de Medios): evolution of the general audience 1980-2025, minutes of radio and television 1991-2025 and readers per newspaper 2009-2025. Reach over the population aged 14 or over; to convert to readers per 1,000 inhabitants it is multiplied by the EGM universe and divided by the whole population of the INE municipal register. Until 2017 newspaper reading is print only; from 2018 it includes the digital replica.
• Advertising spend: public summaries of the InfoAdex study of advertising spend in Spain (2010-2026 editions; the full study is paid). For each year the latest published revision is used. The 2004-2023 series follows the old criterion (newspapers = print; digital, under internet) and the 2022-2025 series the new one (each medium with its website); they are not mixed. Internet was revised upwards from 2014 and outdoor from 2018.
• Companies and employment: Eurostat, structural business statistics (sbs_na_1a_se_r2 up to 2020 and sbs_ovw_act from 2021), compiled for Spain by INE with the Structural Business Statistics for the services sector. NACE branches 58.13 (newspapers), 58.14 (magazines), 60.1 (radio), 60.2 (television) and 63.91 (news agencies). The method changed in 2021 (FRIBS regulation).
• Media groups: consolidated annual accounts of Atresmedia, Mediaset España, Prisa and Vocento (shareholders' websites), and annual reports of RCS MediaGroup for its Unidad Editorial division; transcribed by hand, with the PDF and pages of every figure in the medios_sector_grupos_cuentas seed. Revenue = net turnover plus other operating income; advertising = advertising sales from the revenue note or the segment information; profit = attributable to the parent company. Each year with that year's accounts, without later restatements.
• Public money: marts of the Public money in the media section (Institutional Advertising and Communication Commission, CNMC, RTVE accounts, BDNS and the Public Procurement Platform).
• Constant euros using the INE CPI, and population from the municipal register.