The Impact of the Recession on the TV Industry in Mexico and Spain

Abstract

The impact of the recession has been different in media market in America and Europe. In most Latin American countries, advertising revenue has not decreased as dramatically as in Europe. Spain is one of the European countries in which the recession has hit hardest and, as a result, the media market, mainly free to air TV, has been strongly affected. In contrast, the recession has not affected the Mexican market so profoundly, because its television market does not depend exclusively on advertising. Mexico has historically been regarded as a net exporter in the audiovisual market. The aim of this study is to analyse the influence of the recession on the television market of two countries, Mexico and Spain, and to identify some keys to overcome the consequences of the global recession from market and media management points of view. Although they are very different countries, they share a common language and may become competitors in the international markets. A number of microeconomic indicators are compared, such as media advertising investment, the economic performance of media companies and the international sales of television programs, as well as macroeconomic indicators such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the inflation rate from 2005 (two years prior to the beginning of the crisis) to 2010.

Keywords

• economic recession
• advertising revenues
• television market
• audiovisual exports
• media companies
• mexico
• spain