Antena 3 ended 2009 as the Spain’s leading commercial TV channel in terms of audience share (16.6 per cent), at a time when the country was severely hit by the economic crisis. Grupo Antena 3’s resilience showed “that the company’s decision to bank on digital terrestrial television and the strategic design of a family of channels was the right one”, González said in TV monitor. Alongside its flagship channel Antena 3, the Spanish group operates two DTT channels – Neox and Nova - which González calls “an efficient hedge against the process of audience fragmentation .” Later this year, Grupo Antena 3 will launch a third DTT channel: Nitro.
As Antena 3 celebrates its 20th anniversary, it is clear that the way television is ‘done’ today has changed drastically. Innovation has become key to success in the TV industry, says González. That is why Grupo Antena 3 implemented its ‘Antena 3.0’ strategy a year ago. The new strategy reflected socio-demographic changes as well as the company’s new self-image of no longer being just a TV broadcaster, but an integrated media company with a presence on all three platforms: television, online and mobile.
“We made a strategic point of being wherever the viewer is, regardless of when, how or where he decides to see our product”, explains Silvio González before adding: “Finally, we have taken the step to be much more than a conventional television operator and to transform ourselves into a global provider of content, managing three or more channels and simultaneously, multiple platforms of distribution.”
Silvio González also emphasises the importance of news and information on TV: there is a real demand for it from the public. “Society gets its information mainly through television, and there is no evidence that this is about to change”, he says. However, like all other TV genres, news and information programmes have to evolve to better suit the requirements of demanding viewers. Silvio González concludes by reiterating his intent to make Grupo Antena 3 as profitable as possible und to put innovation and quality at the heart of the group’s thoughts and action. He also predicts change in the Spanish market: “As far as television and the audiovisual landscape are concerned, although there are still some unknowns to be resolved everything shows that two or at most three big groups with enough specific weight will exist in the market alongside a group of companies of smaller size, probably niche, but with a viable future.”