Newly launched Netflix and established services such as Wuaki.tv are facing a Spanish market in which nearly nine out of ten consumers don't want to pay for online or over-the-top (OTT) content.
The figures, from Kantar Media, come at the same time the American subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) has launched in Spain, aiming to help change this often-cited consumer habit. However, illegal downloads and the preference for free content is still rife.
According to Kantar Media, half of the population have watched or downloaded audiovisual content during the last year - both paid for and for free - and only 9% watch series or films on a daily basis. These figures place Spain as one of the European countries with the least audiovisual Internet consumption, with similar rates to Italy and France.
But for the Kantar analysts, the main point is that 89% of this online audience don't pay for what they watch, a percentage similar to Portugal (94%), Estonia (93%) and Latvia (90%).
Only one in ten Spanish people do pay for online, OTT and video-on-demand (VOD) content, compared to, for example, Denmark, where 56% of viewers pay.
However, this hasn't deterred Netflix which has just landed in the country following success stories like Wuaki.tv or Telefónica's Yomvi, which has exceeded one million monthly users.
When announcing the launch back in June, company president Reed Hastings pointed to the free-viewing trend as an opportunity. "I think Spain is to be one of our biggest successes, with an audience with a very high connectivity level which is used to e-commerce and has often shown interest in our product," he said.