**1. Introduction**

The consumption of online video in Over-the-top (OTT) platforms in Spain has been on the rise since the arrival of Netflix in 2015. Today, eight out of every ten Spaniards (about 37 million people) have access to an OTT. The platforms with the highest number of subscribers are YouTube (69%), Amazon Prime Video (60%), Netflix (57%), Disney+ (37%), HBO (36%), and RTVE Play (the OTT of the Spanish Public Television) [1, 2]. The influx of OTTs (media services offered directly to viewers via the Internet, bypassing cable, broadcast and satellite television) has consolidated the liberalization of the Spanish media market within a context of progressive deregulation and increasing concentration of media in a few conglomerates. This situation has caused a strong competition between traditional content creators and young entrepeneurs who can understand their audiences better through datafication and platformization of culture [3–5]. Streaming platforms have also changed the

consumption patterns, since audiences can access online video contents *atawad*, the acronym for anytime, anywhere, and with any device [6].

OTTs have had their highest outreach among young audiences, who are moving away from traditional television and turning to other screens and formats. It's a trend that has been coined by some authors as the 'youthification' [7] of television and it relies on multiplatform technology and social networks. Spanish youngsters between the ages of 16 and 24 prefer to watch online videos downloaded from the Internet and social media, or through subscription to OTT platforms such as Netflix or HBO. Some studies have found a more intense and ritual use of screens by college students around sleeping time, due to unconscious rather than instrumental habits, in order to escape from academic routines and relax [8].

The increase access to smartphones is leading to a more intense and omnipresent use of online apps and streaming services at a younger age. Spanish children between the ages of 6 and 13 engage daily with an average of seven mobile devices, mostly tablets, game consoles and smartphones. Children in Spain get their first smartphone at the age of 11 or 12. Those between the ages of 7 and 12 watch a daily average of 3.6 hours of online video, mostly on YouTube with tablets. Even at a younger age, kids between 3 and 6 watch daily an average of 3.4 hours of online video, mostly on YouTube and YouTubeKids, in the company of adults. In fact, many public television channels regard children as strategic and active audiences key for their survival [9–13]. Within these trends, youthification is the attempt of the television industry to win back preteen and teen publics with innovative narrative, aesthetic, and distribution strategies [14].

Since young people are abandoning linear television, channels try to adapt to the new market by opening new windows such as social networks, mobile applications, or YouTube. Some television channels in Spain are already connecting through YouTube with the fandom of their programs, specially talent and reality shows. Social networks like TikTok have equally influenced the way of telling news in a casual atmosphere defined by hashtags, challenges and sound tagging [15]. The media industry wants to reengage young audiences relying on global platforms and new liaisons, tailoring content and storytelling techniques to youth's preferences, and building on audience data and insight. In order to attract the Spanish youth and compete directly with OTTs, three Spanish television channels decided to launch the platforms Flooxer and MTMAD (free of charge and ad-supported) and Playz (advertising free, part of the public channel RTVE), between 2015 and 2017. They offer webseries, transmedia and interactive projects (mostly Playz), reality shows, and influencer channels, and they are increasingly growing popularity in social media, especially in TikTok [16–20].

The Over-the-top (OTT), Subscription Video on Demand (SVoD), Transaction Video on Demand (TVoD, based on sale or rent of video), or Broadcast Video on Demand (BVoD, free and financed by public funds, license fee or ads) platforms take us to the concept of platformization, which could be defined as the "penetration of economic, governmental, and infrastructural extensions of digital platforms into the web and app ecosystems, fundamentally affecting the operations of media industries and production practices [21]." Based on the long-tail business model, OTTs compensate their low subscription prices using advertising as a complement to a good product placement strategy [22]. Platforms have disrupted the basic principles of traditional television because they don't need a license, they are not constrained by geographic, social or cultural parameters because they have a global distribution, they aren't bound by a linear daily and hourly programming grid or by political and advertising pressures, they measure audiences with big data, and they can personalize their offer

## *The Digital Transformation of the Basque Public Television: New Audiences and OTTs DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113304*

through algorithms. But contents need to reach optimal audience results to continue in the platforms, and the competition among them is fierce after the streaming wars began in 2019, having reached a point of many cancellations and even loss of expected profits [23, 24]. According to Scolari [25], during the streaming wars platforms took on a centripetal model that led them to offer exclusive contents and services and at the same time engage in data mining with the personal information of their subscribers.

The transformations of the media market and its traditional players after the irruption of OTTs have propelled the debate over the concept of media itself. Today platforms like Netflix, Spotify or YouTube do not only exercise control over the content they aggregate through their moderation policies and recommendation algorithms, but also produce a wide range of original audiovisual content [26].

Due to the dominant platformization of culture and society, the old traditional cultural intermediaries are losing the centrality of their role. Public service media have had to face declining audiences and fight with digital platforms for viewers' attention and cultural influence with different strategies, ranging from complacency and resistance to the distinction of their content offerings across new platforms, including production collaborations with other OTTs [26, 27]. As a result, several European public media outlets have already turned to the mobile screen culture with the creation of SVoD services (Streamz by the VRT Flemish public broadcaster), a BVoD seven-day catch-up service in the UK (the BBC iPlayer), and new channels such as the 'funk' network by the ARD and ZDF German public broadcasters, among others. In this last case, German public media have incorporated social media platforms in the production and distribution of content specifically geared to young audiences with the approval of the new Interstate Media Treaty, which regulates the rights and obligations of digital platforms to subject them to the control of German state media authorities since 2020. In the United Kingdom, BVoD services coexist with SVoD services like the ITV's Britbox. Other European public channels have joined forces to take on the transnational streaming platforms. It is the case of The European Alliance formed by Germany's ZDF, France Télévisions and Italy's RAI, and Spain's LovesTV, which is a new HbbTV (Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV) seven-day catch up service launched by the Spanish public RTVE and private channels Atresmedia and Mediaset [28–30].

The underlying question is the maintenance of public service values in the partnerships between public service and private OTTs. According to Raats [31], a partnership agenda could be problematic if the reasons for public service media to partner with private players are not tied to the goals of plurality, quality, trust, diversity and innovativeness of content. Other authors dispute whether platforms developed by public service media respect the public values subscribed in the contracts that those media have signed with their governments [26], or consider that the private-public partnerships could pose a risk to the particularity of public service media as contributors to national culture [27].

The goal of this chapter is precisely to describe the multiplatform strategy of the Basque Public Radio and Television (EITB) to cater to young audiences, particularly in the Basque language, and EITB's creation of a new OTT that has included a full range of Basque audiovisual contents, in addition to its own media production. The Basque Public Radio and Television offer news and entertainment in Basque and Spanish languages in five television channels (ETB1, ETB2, ETB3, ETB4 and ETB Basque), six radio stations (Euskadi Irratia, Gaztea, Radio Euskadi, Radio Vitoria, EITB Musika and EITB Euskal Kantak), a webpage (eitb.eus), a BVoD (EITB Nahieran), seven mobile applications for smartphones and Smart TVs, and social media profiles in Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and Telegram.
