Chile’s pay-TV sector slows


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Juan Fernandez Gonzalez

| 13 April 2016




Chile is showing it’s no different from the other large Latin American pay-TV markets, with its growth experiencing a slow-down.


pantalla tvAccording to the latest figures published by the telecom authority Subtel the pay-TV sector added barely 3,000 subscribers over the last quarter (Q4), reaching 2.94 million households by the end of the year. The 0.7% growth of Q4 contrasts with Q3 figures, which showed a 5.5% increase.

After strong growth during 2013 and 2014, when the market added around 700,000 subs, 2015 closed with a net adding of 100,000 households, most of which registered during the first half of the year.

These figures show a penetration level of 16.26%, one of the lowest among the largest Latin American markets, and satellite and cable technologies are in a similar situation. With 1.51 million subs, direct-to-home (DTH) platforms own 51.3% of the market, while cable operators account for 48.7% with 1.43 million subs.

Regarding operators, Liberty Global’s VTR is still the market leader with 1.02 million subs, although its share continues decreasing and it’s now at 34.7%, far from the over 40% reached in 2013.

VTR’s pay-TV operation is followed by Telefónica’s Movistar (21.6% and over 635,000 subs), AT&T’s DirecTV (17.9%, 526,000) and América Móvil’s Claro (14.8%, 435,000).