Includes web links to local trade fair or show authorities and local newspapers, trade publications, radio/TV/cable information.
Last Published: 6/21/2019

CS Spain’s primary objective is to help small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) to enter the Spanish market.  One of our most valuable tools is counseling, including identifying the best possible trade promotion strategies for specific products or services.

We offer a wide variety of services to facilitate U.S. exports to this market and others within Europe.  Visit our website to learn more about our services, or contact our office.

Commercial Service Madrid has close relationships with the main trade fair authorities, i.e. in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Bilbao and actively supports leading trade shows in these cities.

The News Media
Spain has more newspapers and magazines per capita than any other European country. However, only 22.7 percent of Spaniards read the newspaper every day, a number that has been steadily decreasing for the past nine years. Despite low readership, newspapers still shape the news agenda and program content of broadcast media. Spanish newspapers tend to have an editorial line that favors a particular political group.

The main newspapers are:


More than 140 different dailies (mainly local or regional) plus six supplements are published in Spain. Sports daily newspaper Marca rates as the most popular (readership 1,744,000). Despite Spain’s having formally recovered from the financial crisis of 2008, Spanish newsrooms still suffers the effects of a downsizing industry, where news consumption shifts from print to on-line.  Newspaper companies have seen their advertising revenues reduced by more than 40 percent and all have suffered the impact of fleeing readers that now get their news from the internet (78.9 percent). Digital-only platforms, led by www.elconfidencial.com, have become leading players in the Spanish news market.  All national dailies have on-line news sites, most popular among younger audiences.  While these sites have growing readership, news agencies face the challenge of how to monetize their platforms beyond on-line advertising. Several outlets are considering the creation of pay walls to access their sites, but worry about the loss of market share given the broad availability of free news on-line.  Initial plans to open paywalls in the main Spanish media were scheduled for the first Quarter of 2019, but have been postponed to at least the end of 2019.

According to figures from the Journalists Association of Madrid, at least 14,000 journalists have lost their jobs in the last 7 years and almost 400 media outlets have closed, including two of three major free newspapers and numerous special interest magazines. Media groups have all implemented severe cost-cutting programs that have considerably reduced newsroom staff.

Six major media holding companies own most of the media outlets in Spain. They are:
Virtually every Spanish home has a television (99.7 percent) and it is the most followed media (85 percent of all Spaniards). Peak viewing hours are between 2:00-4:00 p.m. and 9:00-11:30 p.m. State-run Radio Televisión Española (TVE 1 and TVE 2) and regional stations run by the autonomous governments have been supplemented by five national private commercial channels: , Antena 3, Telecinco, La Sexta and Cuatro TV (in order of audience). A merger between Telecinco and Cuatro was finalized in 2010; both stations remain on the air. A second merger took place in 2011 between Antena3 and La Sexta in response to the latter’s dire financial situation.

About 57.5 percent of Spaniards listen to radio every day for almost two hours, mostly on FM channels, and radio remains the most-trusted news medium. Peak listening hours are early in the morning and late at night. Major radio stations and wire news services include:

Privately owned stations:
  • Cadena SER, is the leading Spanish radio station with an average audience of 3.9 million listeners
  • COPE. Has surpassed Onda Cero as the second most popular station in the past year and currently has 2.6 million listeners.
  • Onda Cero, is down to third with to 1.7 million listeners.
Government-owned station:
  • RNE, 1.2 million listeners.
Privately owned wire news service: Government-owned wire news services:

The U.S. Embassy’s Public Diplomacy (PD) section maintains active relations with the fullrange of Spanish media. PD actively pursues placement of policy and program material in the major Spanish media, primarily on foreign affairs, security, and international trade issues.

Prepared by our U.S. Embassies abroad. With its network of 108 offices across the United States and in more than 75 countries, the U.S. Commercial Service of the U.S. Department of Commerce utilizes its global presence and international marketing expertise to help U.S. companies sell their products and services worldwide. Locate the U.S. Commercial Service trade specialist in the U.S. nearest you by visiting http://export.gov/usoffices.