Mexico’s pay-TV market has finally exceeded Brazil’s, retaking the leading position in Latin America.

mexico tv paga junioWith the Mexican industry on the up and Brazil’s market shrinking, it was only a matter of time. According to Mexico’s Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones (IFT), the Spanish-speaking market reached 19.5 million pay-TV households by June 2016. By that time, Brazil’s Anatel was reporting 18.9 million subs.

Mexico’s official figures also reveal that over one million homes started to subscribe to a pay-TV service during the first half of 2016. In fact, almost 60% of families are currently paying for TV, ten percentage points more than two years ago, when the market consisted of 15.5 million subscriptions.

Similarly to Brazil, Mexico’s satellite operators lead the industry, accounting for 56% of total pay-TV subs. Direct-to-home (DTH) is highly concentrated, as Televisa’s SKY (69.3%) and Dish (30.7%) share the satellite market.

The commercial state of cable looks a bit different, even though the five Televisa operations (48.2%), led by Cablemás and Cablevisión, and Megacable (35.1%) dominate the market ahead of Totalplay, Axtel and several local players.

Figures also highlight the dominant position of Televisa despite two years of regulation to reduce the market concentration and increase competition.