stops

the Transport plan so that the most used Cercanías line in Spain stops being chaos

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The Ministry of Transport has finally decided to transform line C-5 of Cercanías de Madrid, which is, with some 72 million annual travelersthe most used in Spain. Won’t do it until they finish the underground works of the A-5but we already know all the details. It is the largest renovation of the line in decades and the heart of the change are 35 giant trains that are already being manufactured in Valencia. ORa line to the limit. As we said, the C-5 moves about 72 million passengers a year and absorbs 29% of all Cercanías Madrid trips. It is the public transport line with the most users in the entire country, and today it operates with trains that do not exceed 150 meters in length, platforms that do not allow larger vehicles and an outdated signaling system. With a demand that has grown by 10% between 2022 and 2024the margin has narrowed so much that it is time for a change. The protagonist of change: the Stadler Series 453. On March 4, the Ministry of Transportation presented the modernization plan of the C-5, endowed with 1,350 million euros, and confirmed that Renfe will allocate 600 million to the purchase of the 35 Series 453 trains manufactured by Stadler at its plant in Albuixech, Valencia. The service promises, since we are talking about trains that will measure almost 200 meters (specifically 191.16 meters) and will combine single-decker cars at the ends with double-decker cars inside. QWhat changes for the traveler. Where today about 1,565 people fit in the current trains, the new ones will accommodate up to 1,884 people (524 seated and 1,360 standing) in a single composition. Double-decker cars are designed for longer journeys and with a seat; those with one floor, wider at the entrances, for quick ascents and descents. Two-story interior cars According to they count in Trenvista, they will include areas for wheelchairs, multifunctional spaces for bicycles and strollers, a fully accessible toilet, WiFi and USB sockets. In addition, the middle points to greater padding than in other Cercanías trains, but without armrests. Why haven’t they arrived yet. Renfe put out to tender these trains in 2019 and the contract was awarded to Stadler in 2021. The Swiss firm had to expand its Albuixech factory to meet the order, which in 2022 was expanded with 20 additional 200-meter units, and began manufacturing in rented warehouses while the new facilities were ready, according to detailed at that time the medium. The first tests on the Spanish railway network began in the summer of 2024. The arrival at C-5, however, will still take some time. And the Ministry’s plan places the entry into service of these trains with automatic driving in April 2030. The problem that had to be solved before. For a 200-meter train to circulate on C-5, the infrastructure has to be prepared. Today it is not. The current platforms are too short, the LZB signaling system that regulates circulation has reached the end of its useful life, and there are no maintenance facilities capable of accommodating trains of that length. The good news is that in the 1,350 million plan is included the extension of platforms between 40 and 50 meters, the construction of a new maintenance base in Móstoles, the replacement of the signaling system with the European ERTMS Level 2 standard and the construction of a new station in Móstoles-El Soto. What’s coming now. The schedule foresees two service cutsin the summers of 2027 and 2028, to get to work with the most complex parts, and with free replacement buses and reinforcement in the Metro. Testing of the new signaling system will begin in April 2029, the first high-capacity trains will enter service in April 2030, and the project is expected to be completed in October 2031. The objective declared by the Ministry is to go from 72 to 100 million travelers annually, with a capacity 60% greater than the current one. It remains to be seen if the deadlines are met. Images | Snooze123 (Wikipedia) and Stadler In Xataka | In a region addicted to burials, a municipality wants to bury another 2.5 kilometers: Rivas’ plan for the Metro

SPC was the mobile brand for seniors. Now it has a system that learns when your grandfather stops behaving as usual

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SPC has been digesting for a year the change that Teresa Acha-Orbea, its general director, described us at MWC 2025: going from a telephone manufacturer for seniors to a comprehensive technological services company. Again in Barcelona and again at the MWC, the company from Alava has presented the first product that materializes this transformation. It’s called Zeus Halo, and it’s a predictive telecare platform built around a hub domestic 5G with a 12-inch screen, four microphones and IoT connectivity to integrate sensors, activity bracelets and other home devices. It appears on the right in the image that heads these lines. The proposal is based on a demographic premise that defines our country today: Spain ages. According to INE projections, In 2030 almost a third of the population will be over 60 years oldand a growing portion of that group lives alone. Current telecare systems work reactively, waiting for something to happen before acting. Zeus Halo points in the opposite direction: the system learns the user’s behavior patterns. What time do you get up, how many times do you go to the bathroom, when do you leave the house… When these habits change abruptly, the device generates a preventive alert that reaches the smartphone of family members or caregivers, or directly to third-party telecare platforms. “If this person usually goes to the bathroom several times a day and suddenly they are only in the living room, something is happening,” explains Acha-Orbea in the stand of SPC in the Spanish Pavilion. It can also detect falls through the activity bracelet, monitor heart rate or temperature, and send alerts if the person leaves and does not return. The hardware does not require a router, or even that there is a WiFi network in the house, because the hub It carries a 5G SIM and covers all the sensors in the home, which eliminates a common installation barrier for this user profile. Compatible sensors include presence, door opening and smoke detectors, in addition to wearables. Cameras are technically possible, but SPC has decided not to incorporate them by default: “We all want to maintain our privacy, at least visually,” says Acha-Orbea. The second leg of Zeus Halo is the conversational agent. The platform includes a voice assistant that learns the user’s tastes and interests and maintains conversations adapted to them, with reminders for medication, medical appointments or birthdays that are delivered as voice calls instead of text messages, because “SMS are not usually read”, something that was already explained to us a year ago. The system can also organize secure video calls with family members through its own application, suggest activities inside and outside the home or connect Zeus Halo users with common interests. The unwanted loneliness of older people has been on the public agenda for years, The product will be launched before the end of the year in two modalities: ORa version for retail intended for families who want to install it in their parents’ or grandparents’ home And another institutional version for councils, municipal social services, residences, telecare and insurance companies that need to monitor their users proactively. SPC has clients such as CaixaBank or the Generalitat of Asturias in its portfolio, which gives it direct access to the type of organization it targets with the B2B version. The launch of Zeus Halo is accompanied by a brand repositioning. SPC launches logo, website (now in onspc.com) and a new definition of itself: “technology consultancy” that combines manufacturing, systems integration and consulting under the umbrella ‘human by design. The company, founded at the end of the eighties taking advantage of the liberalization of telecommunications, which for decades lived by selling landlines and mobile phones adapted for the elderly, today has 78 employees and headquarters in Vitoria, Lisbon and Shenzhen. It sells about 400,000 units per year of basic phones for seniors and about 30,000 adapted smartphones. It is, according to its own figures, the first Spanish brand in that niche with 50% of the national market. The transition that Zeus Halo embodies has not come for free. SPC has had to recruit software engineers and is setting up its own engineering in China to work directly with software manufacturers. chipsets. He 2G blackoutwhich forced the company to redesign its catalog a few years ago, turned out to be the lever that turned “dumb” devices into platforms capable of exchanging data. Zeus Halo is the next step in that same logic: a little hardware gadget that becomes the connected brain of the home. In Xataka | There is a good thing about having your grandchildren put in a hat: science suggests that it is a great shield against cognitive decline Featured image | Xataka

Fear of vibrations stops trains on the Madrid-Barcelona route

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At 230 km/h in a 300 km/h section because the vibrations are excessive. It is the speed at which you will travel between Madrid and Calatayud (Zaragoza) if the driver decides so. The 200 kilometer stretch has been a source of controversy for some time and it was now that, after the Adamuz accident in Córdobaconcerns have increased. What has happened? The train drivers would be traveling at 230 km/h on the section between Madrid and Calatayud (Zaragoza) because the vibrations are excessive, according to The Economist. They claim in the media that the machinists would have unilaterally decided to make this decision because the intensity of the vibrations is too high. The decision would have come after Adamuz accident (Córdoba) in which an Iryo train has derailed and, according to the first investigationsa second Alvia train traveling in the opposite direction collided with it. It is also noted from The Economist that the decision would affect Renfe trains but that there are no similar communications in Ouigo and Iryo. In addition, the newspaper also specifies that there would be Renfe personnel on the train itself warning travelers that delays will reach 15 minutes for this reason. Can machinists do this? In Xataka We have contacted SEMAF (Spanish Union of Railway Machinists), the majority among this group, who assure us that they have no evidence that the machinists have decided collectively and unilaterally to reduce the speed of the track. It will be, according to SEMAF, at the discretion of each worker. The union explains that the driver has the power to reduce the speed of the train or even stop it if he considers that the conditions of the track prevent adequate driving comfort due to excessive vibrations. In fact, those speed reductions were already occurring before the breakage of Talgo’s S-106 (Avril) trains. This is what a machinist contacted by Xataka who prefers to keep his identity anonymous. He explains that it is each driver who decides how to act and that “we have not been told to do it (slow down the speed) either from the company or from the unions.” The Calatayud controversy The 200 kilometer stretch between Madrid and Calatayud has been in the spotlight for some time. At the end of July 2025, Talgo’s AVRIL trains that Renfe uses for its AVLO services suffered cracks in their structure as a result of the vibrations generated when the trains passed. So The Economist already announced the news and after a series of contradictory communications, Renfe ended up withdrawing the trains of the Madrid-Barcelona line, disregarding the AVLO service that has not been available again. Since then, Talgo and Adif are blaming themselves for what happened. The chronology. From SEMAF, however, they do not share exactly all the points that are pointed out. According to its chronology, the events have happened as follows: AVRIL trains suffer cracks due to excess vibrations and are retired SEMAF sends a letter to Adif requesting that the speed be reduced Adif does not respond SEMAF reminds train drivers that they have the power to reduce speed if they consider there is a justified reason. For SEMAF, nothing has changed. The train drivers are the ones who decide, always with justification and indicating the reason to the command post, whether or not to reduce the speed. SEMAF emphasizes that they have not given an instruction from the union to reduce speed. The vibrations. During the last few hours the controversy around the vibrations of the AVE has been increasing. From SEMAF, they may be caused by small damage to the track as a result of the passage of the trains themselves, which is why they ask that investment in maintenance is adequate to the increase in traffic in the liberalized corridors. Of course, the union emphasizes that there is no risk of derailment due to these vibrations and they make it clear that it is a comfort problem for the passenger and generate greater stress on the infrastructure and the condition of the rolling stock. This means that actions have to be launched on the road or in workshops ahead of time. Furthermore, there is no evidence that they were the cause of the Adamuz accident. “If we were clear that it was a danger to the road, we would stop traffic.” SEMAF has been so emphatic that it also emphasizes that the infrastructure is safe and that it is clear that if Adif detects a problem serious enough to cause a derailment, the line will be closed. “We want to go home”. The Renfe driver with whom Xataka has been able to contact explains that “the tracks are deteriorated, we train drivers give a lot of information, and sometimes we are taken for crazy because we give too many parts”, the words are from a Renfe train driver who prefers to keep his name anonymous. “As a result of the S-106 problems, it was proposed that the trains circulate at a slower speed. It is true that these deformities (the cracks) are due to the state of the track, to which we must add the terrible quality of the train. We also lowered them (the speeds) with other series of trains. Call it a prevention measure or care of the infrastructure,” explains the driver. “The crew members complain, the interveners complain and we write complaints, because there are areas where we are having trouble,” he summarizes. Although he makes it clear that “if we understand that there is a danger to traffic, we call the command posts and they take measures by setting limitations, although for months we have also been taking them by slowing down. We are the first interested parties, we want to return home.” Why do vibrations occur? Firstly, SEMAF points out that we are talking about the rolling stock being “steel against steel” so any imperfection will be more evident. Vibrations can be caused by an imperfection in the road or an imperfection in the … Read more

Less routes, less stops and less municipalities

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Spain prepares for a deep change in its bus lines. The Ministry of Transport has the mission of renewing a system that has become obsolete, with dozens of expired services in its award but that continue to be provided by the impossibility of new competitions. And with the challenge of transforming and approaching the new realities of our country. What is happening? He Concessional map of Spanish buses He prepares for a deep change. The Ministry of Transport Wait for the response of the Autonomous Communities to your last proposal in a period that expires next Monday. Silence will be taken as an acceptance of the new model but it is not clear what the vote of a good part of the regions will be, mostly governed by the Popular Party. How do Spanish buses work? In Spain, two companies are not allowed to fight along the same line, as with trains. There are currently 77 runners who go out to competition. To this exam the interested companies are presented and, subsequently, the concession to whom the best offer under the designed sheets is attributed. What changes are proposed? What Transport has presented has been a deep redesign in this way of acting. They point out in Five daysthat from wanting to reduce to 22 runners of the total of 77 that is now available. These, they say, respond to the new ways of moving from the Spaniards who have been betting on the journeys between large cities or have jumped to the train. This implies, irremediably, that the new routes would put aside many municipalities (especially those that have lost population). Transport ensures that this service will have to replace the autonomous communities with their own concessions and offer 40 million euros extra help to implement the new lines. What do those involved respond? They point out in the economic environment that the opposition has not made its position clear. It has been pointed out that 40 million euros are insufficient and that the investment should be at least 110 million euros. However, the regions have until next Monday to answer and give a definitive answer. For their part, bus companies have been divided for years. Confebus is an association that represents 40% of companies that operate in our country and They firmly believe in the concessional modelsince they ensure that it allows more security for travelers when it comes to the route and also greater security for companies that have to get the concession. Anetra or Flixbus, however, carry years betting on liberalization of the sector. This last company uses a franchise system throughout Europe that analyzes customer movement data, with the aim of focusing on those most profitable routes with a higher volume of income. Something that cannot be done in Spain. A monopoly without expiration date. The main problem indicated by these companies, but also by the government, is that the terms of the awards are not being fulfilled. In Five days They put the example of the Madrid-Irún route, one of the ones that moves the most money but has been expired for six years. Without a new contest, the concessionary company continues to act in a kind of undercover monopoly. The reasons are varied but they almost always follow the same pattern. It is very difficult to take the new corridor in contest because the process is drowned in a tangle of allegations during the different phases of the process. Madrid-Valenciawhich has to go out to competition, already accumulates more than 800 allegations. Goodbye, town, goodbye. The great victims of the new process are, without a doubt, the inhabitants of hundreds of municipalities that could run out of routes. With the new transport proposition (They have been advancing since 2022)the data speak for themselves: the stops will be reduced, on average, from 12.8 per route to just six. The municipalities under the responsibility of transport go from 1,912 locations to 495. From the Ministry they try to calm the waters ensuring that the municipalities that are abandoned because the affected autonomous communities do not take care of those routes that, with the new model, fall on their roof will be served by transport. But it has not been said under what conditions or if there will be reductions in frequencies, for example. Photo | Flixbus and Ash Gerlach In Xataka | The bus has been working for centuries as we know it. Madrid wants to know its limits with a “bus on demand”

Renfe informs of stops and aen of incidents

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Its causes are still unknown, but the massive blackout that has left widespread areas of Spain and Portugal is also affecting public transport, including rail, air and even, in some areas, traffic lights. In his official X profile, Renfe details that at 12.30 there was an electricity supply cut throughout the national electricity network that has resulted in “detainees and without outputs at all stations”, without providing more data. Similar message He has moved Aenawhich acknowledges that due to the power cut there are “some incidents” in airports and has resorted to contingency structure, which remain active. Likewise, public transport of at least some cities has been affected, such as Madrid. The Metro responsible They report that the service is interrupted due to “lack of electricity supply.” (Information in development)

His first ‘Joint Venture’ stops operating and dragging thousands of layoffs

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For more than three decades, Microsoft has maintained a constant presence in China. Although the country represents only a fraction of its global incomeRedmond’s company opted to position himself there with products such as Windows and Officeand with a network of research centers aimed at collaborating with the local technological ecosystem. Today, in a scenario marked by geopolitical tension, that bet begins to be diluted: Microsoft has begun to undo agreements and to close facilities, in what seems to be part of a broader reorganization plan in the region. A Joint Venture Microsoft in China throws the closure. As reported South China Morning Post, Wicresoftthe first Joint Business Created by Microsoft in the country, it will cease its operations. Although the situation for American technological ones in China has been complicated over time, the announcement has caught by surprise. According to the Hongkonese newspaper, the employees were informed on Monday that their work linked to the software firm led by Satya Nadella “will come to an end.” Citing the Chinese medium Caijing, the measure will affect some 2,000 workers. Sudden notification. Wicresoft, based in Seattle and more than 10,000 workers worldwide, is dedicated to offering advice, technological solutions and operational support for large international brands. In China, its presence extended to 20 cities, including Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen and Hong Kong, where it managed projects of different scale for Microsoft. According to the aforementioned media, the news of the closure came unexpectedly: many employees received the notice by mail this Monday and, in several venues, they were asked to leave the place as soon as Tuesday, without margin to react. A question about the future of support. The closure of Wicresoft leaves in the air who will manage Microsoft’s after -sales support in China, a market where access to technical services remains key to many users and companies. The company was responsible for giving technical assistance to key products such as Windows 10, Windows 11 and Office, among others, adapting the service to the particularities of the local environment. According to Reutersthis change is aligned with the intention of Microsoft to centralize and reduce subcontracting in the country, although it has not been revealed who will take over or in what deadlines. Impulse for local alternatives. Microsoft’s progressive withdrawal in China leaves free space that other local firms have not taken advantage of. One of the big beneficiaries is Kingsooft Office, head of WPS Office, An office suite compatible with Microsoft formats that has already exceeded 100 million daily users in the country. Her experience in the local market and her functional resemblance with Office (at first glance seems like a clone) have made it an option increasingly adopted by public organizations, banks and telecommunications operators. Since 2022, Chinese state companies are obliged to submit quarterly reports on their progress in the replacement of foreign software for national alternatives. As the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal points outthis policy, promoted from Beijing in full technological and commercial war with the United States, has directly favored companies such as Kingsooft, which now have the implicit support of the state apparatus. The result: less licenses for Office and more WPS deployment in strategic sectors where Microsoft moves. SDE WICRESOFT step is not an isolated case. In the last two years, Microsoft has progressively reduced its presence in the Asian giant. In 2023, The company closed all its physical stores in China, offered relocations to hundreds of employees in the artificial intelligence area and applied template cuts. More recently, he has also hardened his internal security protocols, forcing its workers in China to use iPhones exclusively to access corporate platformsdue to the restrictions imposed by the lack of Google Play in the country. Shanghai’s laboratory is another example of that replication. Inaugurated in 2019 as the largest center of its type outside the United States, the IATI & AI Insider Lab was conceived to promote the development of strategic technologies in collaboration with local companies. He closed its doors in early 2024 after supporting more than 250 projects and training thousands of professionals. Its closure confirms a trend that, although not entirely unexpected, does show a deep change in Microsoft’s strategy in one of the countries where it has been operating longer and where they had made multiple bets. Withdrawal in full trade war. The Microsoft replication does not occur in a vacuum. It coincides with a new escalation in the tensions between Washington and Beijing that has reactivated the large -scale commercial war. Donald Trump has threatened to impose additional 50% tariffs if China does not withdraw its retaliation measureswhich arrived after the first waves of taxes driven by the White House after their return to power. In this climate, many quoted American companies are collapsing in the stock market, dragging with it to entire sectors and other markets in the world. Images | VD Photography | / Ricardo | Silvestre Rui In Xataka | Manufacturing the iPhone 16 Pro of 256 GB in China costs 550 dollars today. With tariffs it will cost $ 850

Delete the stops in Castilla y León

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215 minutes. That is the time that it should take a high -speed train to travel the distance that Vigo separates from Madrid from this month of March. It is not a figure that we have said randomly. It is the promise in which Oscar Puente reaffirmed At the beginning of this 2025, since since the arrival of the Avril there was talk of connect Madrid and Vigo In just over three and a half hours. The same day in which it also took advantage of confirming that the number of places offered would be expanded by 125%. The problem is that those 215 minutes remain, right now, a promise. What are real are the delays and breaches that have accumulated since In May 2024 The first trains will arrive at the railway line. The first day, the train that promised to reduce travel time in 15 minutes was exceeded half an hour above the scheduled. The second day, andl delay went above two hours. Then, the Vigo-Madrid had to be done in four hours, with the promise that time should be filed over time. It improved … little. In August last year Just one in five trains that covered the journey arrived at the expected hour. And we are already in March 2025 and there is no trace of those 215 minutes desired. So Abel Caballero, mayor of Vigo, has had a proposal: why not eliminate stops in Castilla-León? A direct Madrid-Vigo In case Spain was devoid of storms in recent days, Caballero decided to generate his own on the afternoon of March 19. That day a meeting had been organized between Mayor Gallego and Álvaro Fernández Heredia, new director of Renfe. After the same, Caballero exposed what had been talked there. The mayor of Vigo said that he had presented some alternatives to Fernández Heredia to reduce until three hours and 45 minutes the time that Madrid separates from his city. The proposal was clear: Eliminate stops in Castilla-León. He did not explain which but he said the following: “The current travel time on one of the tours is very elongated by an excessive number of stops in the area of ​​Castilla y León, a area already close to Madrid that currently has a very important coverage of trains that come from all over the north and the rest of Galicia on high -speed paths” The words were collected by the local medium Atlantic.net. The proposal, according to Caballero, had had “very good reception” and Fernández Heredia would have been “very receptive.” And, of course, the winds unleashed the storm. Renfe has left the gentlemanensuring that the stops that are currently in Segovia, Medina del Campo, Zamora and Sanabria High Speed ​​will not be suppressed. Before, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, president of Castilla-León, had already shown his anger crossing the intentions of “intolerable”, they collect in The Spanish. The crossing of statements, of course, has been felt throughout the day of March 20, with cross messages between members of the PSOE (to which Caballero belongs) and the PP (to which Mañueco belongs) both Galicians and Castellanoleonese, as well as the different political parties that give voice to all the affected provinces, such as Zamora or Segovia. The conflict, however, exemplifies the wounds that have opened with the expansion of high speed east of the country. One of those wounds is found in Zamora. Already in May 2024 they collected in Vigo lighthouse that a possibility that was on the table to reduce the times was to skip the stop in the city “that will have 12 trains a day per sense despite having 60,000 inhabitants.” Another key places that lengthens the trip in Madrid-Vigo is its forced passage by Santiago de Compostela. No direct connection between Vigo and Orense (just over an hour by car) is obliged to the high -speed train to deviate 70 kilometers to cover the entire journey and reach Vigo. This alternative has been on the table since 2001 but Bridge avoided last year Give a concrete date of when the project could be ready or, at least, if at any time it would be approved. Although Madrid-Vigo has focused all eyes for obvious reasons, confrontations on the occasion of high speed are common in Spain. In the Basque Country, it is not only that high speed arrives with decades of delayat this time there is a strong confrontation to choose the path that must connect the “and Basque” with high speed from Pamplona. Everything seemed aimed with a step by Vitoria but a Alternative by the Gipuzkoan town of Ezkio/ITSASOby the Sierra de Aralar. The connection in AVE Madrid-Lisboa has also been disputed. Among the latest discussionsthat of the Ministry of Transport, led by bridge, With the Government of Castilla-La Mancha and the municipalities of Toledo and Talavera de la Reina, in relation to whether a new train station should be built in the first case or if the tracks should be buried in the second. But these have been the last fringes because the cities of Badajoz and Salamanca They have been faced for years in a discussion that has recently been a folder when Bridge confirmedagain, that the journey between Madrid and Lisbon would pass through the city of Extremadura. Photo | Namor88 and Pedro Vicente Seoane Prado In Xataka | Spain has its own Express Orient and is an ode to luxury: the exclusive, nineteenth and very expensive transcontábrico

That solar energy stops growing in Spain

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This month will be remembered Like the rainiest, having water reserves in 65.8%, According to the miteco. However, it is not good news for solar energy that has fallen for the first time in three years. The data. According to the reports of the Spanish Electricity (REE), in the month of March, the Solar Generation He has reached 11% total, which represents a decrease with respect to the year 2024 (13.9%) and The year 2023 (12.8%). Heavy rains. We have had a couple of weeks that it is difficult to see the sun and it seems that You can extend even more. For this reason, one of the most harmed clean sources has been photovoltaic. However, other renewables have come out more than beneficiaries of this rain and wind, we are talking about wind and hydroelectric. Favored systems. On the one hand, wind energy It does not have the same capacity that photovoltaic, but when it comes to adverse weather conditions who eats the ground to solar panels are wind turbines. In fact, Ree’s real time data shows that wind is generating 46% wind energy compared to 12% of solar (These data may vary, since they are being taken when writing this article). On the other hand, as we mentioned above the total water reserve, this situation has allowed hydroelectric energy to have reached in what we have been 17.5%. However, it has not yet exceeded last year that achieved a level 21.5% of electric production, more than four higher percentage points. So how will my light bill be? Although solar energy always It had been key to the energy mixthis time the contribution of both wind and hydroelectric can be A small relief for consumers. However, like has denounced the OCU There are other factors that will make the light bill, such as The price of gas and electric tolls. Image | Flickr Xataka | Solar panels compared to 100,000 olive trees: in Jaén the neighbors are also protesting against renewable projects

Netflix is ​​going like a rocket but stops communicating its figures. The reason is simple: everything has a roof

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Netflix has announced its financial results for the last quarter of 2024, and they leave us with two closely related news. First, in 2025 new price increase is coming in countries around the world such as the United States or Portugal. Second, the number of subscribers has increased dramaticallymuch more than expected in the company’s own projections, leaving the global total at 302 million customers. The numbers. More specifically: in the United States the price for the standard plan with ads goes from $6.99 per month to $7.99, and from $15.49 per month to $17.99 in the standard plan. These are just some examples justified by the 19 million new subscribers that came to the platform in the fourth quarter of 2024. 9.8 million new subscribers were expected, so the results have far exceeded expectations, generating profits of 10.2 billion of dollars. A little more. As Netflix explains, “as we continue to invest in programming and offer more value to our partners, we will occasionally ask them to pay a little more so we can reinvest and continue improving Netflix.” That is, they are going to raise prices whenever they can, having become de facto in one of the most expensive options on the streaming scene (and if we compare it with specific competitors like Prime Video, Netflix is ​​a much more expensive option). However, he also knows that these increases have a limit. Communication is over. Possibly, Netflix already knew this in 2024. It was then, in April, when he announced that the fourth quarter of 2024, for which we have just received the data, would be the last in which Netflix would talk about the number of subscribers. From now on, apart from the audience and viewing figures that it will continue to communicate a couple of times a year, it will provide other types of data (profits, growth, budget), and will only report key subscriber figures when they are crossed. That is to say, very publicizable round numbers: possibly we will not hear about the subject again until they cross the threshold of 400 or 500 million subscribers. The ceiling is hit. What does this decision mean? Possibly, Netflix has calculated that it cannot grow much more (hence the surprise that the platform itself recognized at an increase in subscribers greater than calculated). They will stop communicating those numbers so as not to give the impression that their growth is being hindered, especially since Netflix’s growth points in other directions. The main one is the economic one: Netflix can increase its profits, and hence the price increase, as well as the recent measures that we have seen in recent months: ending shared accounts, tiers with ads… the Netflix bubble is far from exploding, but it has to diversify. Video games and more. At this time he is developing strategies such as his still timid, but increasingly clear intention to enter the video game industrywhich show that Netflix has no choice but to see its growth slow down in its original business, but that does not prevent it from becoming a diverse and multi-tentacled monster. It has also already announced that it will slightly increase its budget for creating programs (from 17,000 to 18,000 million dollars), in something that also has a declaration of intent: it is not going to slow down in its race to become one of the main audiovisual producers. . Who can deny that he is achieving it? Thanks to ‘Emilia Pérez’ she will surely become one of the most nominated producers for this year’s Oscars. Header | Netflix In Xataka | Netflix is ​​experiencing its best moment thanks to two strategies that it always promised to combat: advertising and live events

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