Mexican free-to-air TV ratings get Pope’s blessing


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Juan Fernandez Gonzalez

| 22 February 2016




Just when Mexican free-to-air (FTA) TV numbers were lowest in history, the Pope's visit to the country has driven high ratings, with almost half of the population following the event on TV.



papa mexicoAccording to Nielsen Ibope, 53.5 million people watched Pope Francis' visit to Mexico, nearly five million more than when Pope Benedict XVI came to the country in 2012. The religious event, extensively covered by the country's FTA networks, was followed on TV by over 4.5 in every ten Mexicans, with women and those over 45 dominating the audience.

These figures provide a port in a storm for free-to-air channels, which have been cited as losing the battle against both pay-TV and new TV platforms. Indeed, a recent report shows that Mexicans spend more time watching Netflix than FTA networks.

The Pope's visit has not only highlighted the FTA situation in Mexico, but has showed the increasing importance of social media and, in particular, social TV. Also according to Nielsen Ibope, 428,000 tweets were written about the event, taking over 30% of the Twitter conversation during the six days the Pope was in the country and generating 60 million impressions.