Pay-TV growth cools down in Uruguay


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Juan Fernandez Gonzalez

| 08 December 2015




The growth of Uruguay's pay-TV sector has practically come to a standstill, after adding 8,000 subs in the last six months.



Although the figures are small due to the size of the country, Uruguay's pay-TV added nearly 200,000 subs over the past four years, representing growth of 32%. But during the last half of 2014, barely 14,000 subs were added, and just 8,000 more started to pay for TV between January to June 2015.

According to figures from the telecom authority, Ursec, Uruguay has 708,000 subscribers in total, 23% of which are owned by DirecTV. Cablevision with a 15% share through Bersabel, Audomar and Space Energy Tech, and TCC with 8%, are the country’s second and third largest operators.

While 40% of the country's subscribers are in the capital, Montevideo, DirecTV finds is strongest outside the city. In rural areas, where satellite is necessary due to the lack of cable infrastructure, DirecTV's market share rises to 27%. Away from Montevideo, almost half of households get pay-TV through local operators, and the large cablecos' share is very low.