Pay-TV secures digital reach in Brazil
Details
Juan Fernandez Gonzalez
| 30 August 2017

Research from IBOPE has revealed that Rio’s DTT reaches the 90% penetration purely through pay-TV set-top boxes (STBs).

The research, published by Gired, the group that is leading Brazil’s DTT deployment, found that only 63% of Rio de Janeiro’s homes have specific set-top boxes or TV sets ready for the ISDB-T standard.

However, digitalisation increases to 91% due to homes with pay-TV platforms. A similar trend has been noticed in the city of Vitoria, where 70% of homes have DTT-only TVs or STBs, while 97% are ready for the analogue switch-off thanks to pay-TV digitalisation.

Both cities are the next due to complete the digital switchover in the country, with the analogue switch-off scheduled for 25 October 2017.

According to Brazil’s telecom authority Anatel a minimum 90% of DTT penetration needs to be reached in order to complete the process.

Aiming to increase the reach of digital, free-to-air TV, the Government is also distributing DTT-ready STBs among low-income families, while strengthening communication campaigns to make the population aware of the coming changes.