4
consumption is not expected to make any major leap forward, it is
expected to display increasingly positive growth. This is consistent
with significant growth in the advertisingmarket, whose elasticity with
respect to consumption is very high, as displayed by the massive
decline in recent years. Accordingly, 2014 is expected to be at least
slightly positive, with the growth achieved being bolstered in the
coming years.
This more positive environment allows for some optimism regarding
the immediate future, and will make it possible to reap all the fruits of
the merger carried out in recent years. Although the outlook for the
market and revenue is positive, cost discipline will remain a
cornerstone of management, so as to enable the margins of the
television and radio businesses to grow significantly. The high degree
of quality and diversity in the content on offer is expected to be
maintained and, accordingly, we will be able to continue to enjoy the
boost this provides.
No major corporate transactions, such as the recent merger, are
expected to be carried out. However, we will devote greater efforts to
the objective of earning income from audiovisual-world activities other
than advertising. Nubeox, the pay video-on-demand content platform,
is one of the initiatives in this area, as are participation in the Hola TV
channel, broadcast in South America and the United States,
tualbum.es. and EnglishHouse.TV. Furthermore, the progress made in
2013 on the Internet will continue: 2013 saw 12million unique visitors
to our websites and more than 56 million videos downloaded. The
recent launch of Atresplayer, an online multi-platform content viewing
platform, has proven to be a great success, which will allow us to
achieve greater dissemination of our content and to obtain additional
revenues from both advertisers and paying spectators.
The framework for all these developments will continue to be a
prudent financial policy which, as has been the case to date, will
couple a continued sound equity position with a dividend policy in line
with that of recent years.
Research anddevelopment activities
The Company did not carry out any specific research and
development activities. However, it updates its investments in all new
technologies related to engineering, systems and content distribution
