Research
Advanced
Television’s insight
associate Dataxis
specialises in
analysis of the
LatAm broadcast
and telco sectors. In
the following pages,
we present some
of the company’s
recent findings.
World Cup boost for
LatAm pay-TV
After several quarters of
losing subscribers, Q2 2018
saw Latin America’s pay-TV
market attain a growth of 1%,
according to research firm
Dataxis, who suggest that the
football World Cup has been
the main factor behind the
change in trend. The market
now totals 72.06m legal pay-
TV subscribers.
DirecTV took a great
advantage of the tournament
to record growth in key
market such as Chile
and Colombia. Although
DirecTV is still the second
regional player in terms of
subscribers, it reduced the
gap with the leader America
Móvil to a historical minimum
of 0.8%.
The ARPU of the Pay-TV
service went down to $21.50
as a result of the devaluations
of the local currencies in
several markets in Q2 2018.
18 LATAM Briefing
Fixed broadband
grew over 6%
During the year 2017,
broadband lines grew
by 6.1% compared to
last year throughout the
LatAm region, reaching
72.4m connections. It is
a growth rate similar that
observed during the year
2016 (6.3%).
DSL was still the
most used technology
with a market share
of 48.1%, but it continued
losing weight for the benefit
of cable modem (38.6% of
market share) and specially
for optical fibre that reached
a share of 13.3% (+3.5 points
vs 2016).
The penetration over
households reached 41.5% in
2017, adding one point and a
half to 2016’s penetration
forecasted to reach 79.3m
homes in 2023. Although
Dataxis predicts that 8.5m
new pay-TV customers will
be added compared to 2017,
it is a conservative
evolution. As a result,
TV subscriptions will
not exceed 40% of
households with TV set.
Several factors
influenced the pay-TV
evolution namely: The
economic instability
of the region; certain
countries of great
volume already reached a
saturation point and the
down fall of Brazil (used
to be the locomotive of
the region). However, this
stagnation situation is
not verified in other services.
For example, fixed broadband
did not stop its march and
in 2017 it already outpaced
pay-TV.
Argentina, Colombia, Chile
and Peru will accumulate
26.5% of the pay-TV
subscribers. Central America,
Bolivia and Paraguay will be
the fastest growing markets
as a result of their low rates
of service penetration.
91.1m fixed
broadband accesses
in 2023
Dataxis reveals that almost
20m new access points will
be added within the next
five years. Consequently,
the penetration of the
service in 2023 will reach
46% of households.
Dataxis notes that very
high-speed broadband
options have already gained
critical mass. In 2017 they
represented 36% of the
accesses and it is expected
to reach 75.5% in 2023.
rate.
There are disparities
in connections between
the main markets
of the region. Chile,
Mexico and Argentina
have a penetration rate
exceeding 50% whereas
Colombia is located in
the regional average and
Brazil is almost 6 points
below regional average,
but has the highest
growth rate.
Pay-TV forecast to
reach 79.3m subs
According to Dataxis’s latest
research, pay-TV in LatAm is
Dataxis highlights that
Mexico will hold 28.9% of
pay TV customers and will
continue to be the largest
market in the region. Brazil
will be very close with 28.2%.
Furthermore, Dataxis’s
latest research highlights a
rapid process of replacing
DSL, the dominant
technological option until
2017. DSL exhibited a 48%