Pay-TV & OTT Use Up Among U.S. Hispanic Households

DALLAS: Bilingual Spanish-language broadband homes in the U.S. are more likely to have pay-TV and OTT video service subscriptions than the average U.S. broadband household, with nearly 80 percent subscribing to one or more OTT platforms, according to a new Parks Associates report.

The research, published in a study titled Pay TV and the Spanish Language Household, found that 89 percent of these households have a pay-TV subscription and more than 75 percent subscribe to at least one OTT video service. Among average U.S. broadband households, 84 percent subscribe to pay TV and roughly two-thirds subscribe to an OTT service.

Additionally, bilingual Spanish-language pay-TV households in the U.S. are more likely than the average household to have purchased pay-TV upgrades within the past 12 months. Per the report, a key pay-TV driver for Spanish-language households is the appeal of premium movie channels, with 58 percent citing these networks in a pay-TV package as an appealing factor.

“While pay-TV penetration has declined among U.S. broadband households, adoption has remained steady among Spanish-bilingual households over the past few years,” said Brett Sappington, the senior director of research at Parks Associates. “Cord-cutting does not have the same impact in Spanish-language households as it does for the larger broadband population. In fact, most of their recent pay-TV changes have been upgrades to more expensive services.”

Sappington added: “At one time, many operators required that consumers subscribe to a base package of primarily English-language channels in order to purchase a bundle of Spanish-language channels. Today, Spanish-language services are evolving to better meet the needs of the consumers who demand them. New services are emerging that cater to this segment, including services such as Sling Latino and Univision Now.”