LATAM pay-TV set to add 5MN subs a year to 2019


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Juan Fernandez Gonzalez

| 18 February 2016




The pay-TV industry is set to grow across Latin America with 20 million new subscribers by the end of 2019.



penetracion tv pagaAlthough piracy rates are not expected to decrease and over-the-top (OTT) players are set to see substantial gains, linear pay-TV will see penetration grow from the current 53% to 60%, says Business Bureau's New Media Book 2016. Indeed, the industry is expected to exceed the 100-million subs barrier at some point during 2019, closing the year with 101.3 million subscribers.

Piracy habits aren’t going to change much. By the end of 2015, 24% of premium TV consumption was carried by illegal operators or under-reported subscriptions. The report predicts that in 2019, there will be 13.22% piracy and 10.49% under-reporting.

Venezuela and Argentina lead the current pay-TV market, with over 80% of households subscribing to pay-TV in both countries. But with 6.43 and 11.08 million subs respectively, Venezuela and Argentina are far behind the leading Spanish-speaking territory of Mexico, which has 19.13 million subscribers and a 62% penetration.

Penetration rates are also high in the Caribbean region with Aruba, Barbados, Curaçao and Trinidad and Tobago seeing 73%, Uruguay 67%, Puerto Rico 62%, Chile 62% and Colombia 60%.

Most of the territories with the highest penetration rates are also those with the highest average prices. While the average cost of a basic package in Latin America is $27 per month, Venezuelans pay over $45, Argentina and Mexico charge $37 and Puerto Rico and the Caribbean nearly $33. At the other end of the scale, Colombia and Guatemala charge $11, Nicaragua $10 and Honduras $9.

According to Business Bureau, most investment will target digitalisation during the coming years as one in four operators are still analogue.

Only Puerto Rico has a 100% digital pay-TV sector, followed by Panama (96%), Brazil (94%) and Chile (93%). Venezuela, where one in three subs are analogue, Argentina where over half are analogue and Colombia, the country with greatest presence of cable operators, where over half are analogue again, are at the bottom of the digitalisation ranking.