Outdoor advertising reach catches up with television for first time
The media’s intense race for collective attention today has led to some conclusions that would have been unthinkable a few years ago. Television, the window that for years has reigned supreme in terms of penetration, is now struggling between silver and bronze. On the one hand, because of its progressive decline in impact; on the other, because of the strong consolidation of the Internet as the most effective channel. But, above all, because of the growing – and unprecedented – influence that outdoor advertising is generating, at least at the end of the year.
The third wave of the General Media Study (EGM) carried out by the Association for Media Research (AIMC) shows an exponential increase in the penetration of outdoor media by 1.9 percentage points, from 76.1% to 78.0%. This is an infrequent jump, especially considering that the current average variation between media is around half a percentage point, i.e. a quarter. Television, however, lost 0.6 points to 78.5%, half a point less than Outside. The Internet continues to consolidate its leadership with a reach of 86.7% of the population.
These three windows are followed by radio (54%), magazines (22.2%), newspapers (14%), supplements (4.4%) and cinema (3.0%). All media in this wave, with the exception of television, increase their penetration compared to the middle of this year.
On the other hand, 9 out of 10 Spaniards are connected to the Internet, the highest figure in the entire historical series of the EGM. Madrid and Catalonia are the regions with the most users (95.3% and 94.3%, respectively), while Galicia and Asturias are the ones with the least (82.4% and 81.1%).
16 of the 20 most visited websites are digital newspapers
On the road to the complex and much-discussed reformulation of the press business model, newspapers can boast that they continue to be highly effective communication vehicles in the digital arena. Although the ranking of the most visited sites is headed by Youtube, Facebook and Spotify, the dominant typology is the media.
With the exception of the Loterías y apuestas del Estado website, which is in seventh place, the most visited sites in Spain are El País (4th), La Vanguardia (5th), RTVE.es (6th), La Razón (8th), El Mundo Deportivo (9th) and Antena3tv (10th).
The latest wave of the EGM also sets another record in the press. Never before has Spain recorded such a high level of users who use the Internet to read current affairs with 64.8%. It is five percentage points away from catching up with social networks.
In print, Marca wins by a landslide
Marca is once again the undisputed leader of the print edition. With 891,000 copies per day, the sports paper doubles the circulation of El Mundo (440,000), which is in third place. In between, in second position, is El País with 758,000, practically doubling As (402,000). It is followed by La Vanguardia (375,000), ABC (364,000), La Voz de Galicia (349,000), El Correo (274,000) and Mundo Deportivo (203,000).
The EGM television audience measurement – which does not include Mediaset, one of the main players, which left the AIMC in 2015 – shows the leadership of Antena 3, with 11.3 million daily viewers and a comfortable lead over La 1 (7.8), La Sexta (4.4), La 2 (2.4), TV3 (1.5) and Canal Sur (1.1).