Latin American pay-TV set for sluggish growth


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Joseph O'Halloran

| 21 March 2016




Pay-TV revenues in Latin America, including those from subscriptions and pay-per-view, are set to grow by only 9% between 2015 and 2021, according to a study from Digital TV Research.



Dig TV researach LATAM 21 March 2016Even though this, said the fifth edition of the Digital TV Latin America Forecasts report, would represent a rise of $1.6 billion, the research firm believes that general economic woes and market maturity are providing a break on growth.

The research found that pay-TV penetration in the region will reach 50.6% by 2021, up from 45% at the end of 2015, meaning that there will be 14 million more pay-TV homes between 2015 and 2021, taking the total to 82 million. This compares with more than 27 million pay-TV subscriber additions between 2010 and 2015.

The data also showed that digital cable TV revenues overtook analogue cable in 2014 and that IPTV will pass analogue cable by 2020. The number of digital pay-TV subscribers is set to soar from 52.3 million in 2015 (34.6%) to 80.9 million in 2021 (49.8%). IPTV revenues will likely grow by the same amount as satellite TV and cable TV over this period.

Looking at platform performance, Digital TV Research found that satellite TV will continue to be the largest pay-TV platform, with revenues reaching $13.1 billion in 2021, up from $12.6 billion in 2015. By contrast, cable TV revenues will grow a lot more sluggishly to $5.6 billion in 2021, up from $5.1 billion in 2015.