ABSTRACT
The media industry in Spain started relatively late in comparison with the main European countries. In 1975, after nearly forty years of dictatorship the country started its way to democracy. During those years, the government had a strict control over the media by means of censorship as well as restrictions to the creation of new media. Since webcasters are still small players in the Spanish media market, it is worthwhile to consider the environment in which they operate, bearing in mind the nature of the major webcasters. Digital television was introduced in 1997 with the launch of the first television platform by satellite. The first pay television offers that arose in this new context came as a result of the regulations that enabled competition in the pay television market. Since coaxial cable was hardly implemented in Spain, when the government allowed cable providers to expand their businesses in the middle of the nineties.
