LatAm Pay-TV Market Continues to Boom

BUENOS AIRES: According to analysis from Dataxis, the pay-TV market of the seven biggest territories in Latin America will total 98.32 million subscribers in 2018, equaling a penetration of 68.1 percent, which is nearly four times what it was in 2008.

The seven biggest markets in the region—Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela—will have a combined 98.32 million subs; add in the other regions and this figure passes the 100 million mark. Brazil, Mexico and Peru seem to be the countries with the greatest perspective of percentage evolution toward 2018, largely because of their relative lower rates of development. In the medium term, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Colombia would be the four biggest pay-TV markets by volume of clients. These four will amount to 87.9 percent of the subs in 2018.

Towards the end of 2018, Dataxis expects that 93.1 percent of the pay-TV subs in the region will have subscribed to a digital service. DTH is the platform poised for the largest growth in the region; in 2018, it is expected to amount to almost 60 percent of subscribers. Digital cable is the second-largest option in the market, expected to grab 29 percent of the total. IPTV is forecast to receive close to 4.5 percent of subscribers.