DTH drives Mexican pay-TV sector
Details
Juan Fernandez Gonzalez
| 04 November 2014
Satellite technology is clearly leading Mexico's pay-TV sector, gathering almost 1.5 million more subscribers than cable platforms by the end of Q2 2014, according to the federal institute for telecoms, Ifetel, revealing that direct-to-home (DTH) is leading a market which showed a 6.9% growth compared to 2013.

iftMexico reached 15.4 million subs by June 2014, equivalent to 12.9 subscriptions for every 100 inhabitants and indicating more than 50% penetration among Mexican families. According to Ifetel's report, all this growth has been capitalised by DTH platforms, showing 13.79% increasing during Q2.

Satellite pay-TV services are subscribed to by 8.3 million homes in Mexico, over half of subscriptions. The varied and better offers together with improvement in satellite coverage – especially away from the largest cities where cable isn't available – are among the reasons behind such growth.

On the down side, cable business seems to have stopped growing, showing only 0.27% growth during the second quarter and gathering 6.9 million subs. Although still having a large customer base, cable figures differ markedly from 2013, when cable platforms grew over 15%.

The rest of Mexico's pay-TV market is taken by microwave television or Microwave Multipoint Distribution Service (MMDS), which has 122,600 subs in the country.