LATAM pay-TV to reach 80MN subs by 2021


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Michelle Clancy

| 28 May 2016




The pay-TV market in Latin America will reach 80 million subscribers by 2021, Dataxis has revealed. That’s equivalent to a 42.4% penetration over total TV households.



latin americaDataxis expects that Mexico will be the market with the largest volume of subscribers in the region at the end of this year, representing 27% of the total subscribers in the region.

The growth rate for the 2016-2021 period will slow to 14.4%, well down from the 70.2% CAGR that pay-TV has seen in the last five years. This can be chalked up to economic uncertainty in Brazil, which is hampering spending power, and saturation levels in powerhouse markets like Argentina and Mexico, which are both above the 65% margin.

“The region faces a growth crisis that will require new models of development,” Dataxis said.

Also affecting the outlook is the fact that 94% of subscribers will have some kind of digital option by 2021.

Satellite will remain the dominant pay-TV distribution option and will concentrate 53.4% of the total number of users, the firm added. Dataxis noted that 67.7% of DTH subs in LATAM are serviced by operators who own their own satellite fleet.

In another recent report, Dataxis found that Latin America’s pay-TV operators are reviewing pre-paid strategies as a tool for growth.

The research firm found that pre-paid DTH subscribers in Latin America reached the 10.77 million mark at the end of 2015. The firm projects that this figure will rise to 19.48 million by 2021, representing 45.6% of total DTH subs in the region.

Mexico and Venezuela were the countries with the largest DTH base at the end of 2015, accounting for 51.4% and 21% of total pre-paid clients, respectively.

The pre-paid offer is mostly oriented toward the unbanked customer. But Dataxis said that there’s room to expand that focus, especially if operators move towards offering stripped-down plans, as is happening in Brazil and Mexico. Pre-paid pairs naturally with lower cost offerings.

Dataxis also said that by and large, operators are not including HD channels in their pre-paid plans. And only some companies are offering premium channels or the option to access a second set-top-box (STB). But, that’s changing too: the firm said that by 2018, HD technology will be extended to pre-paid, opening the door for new models.