Advanced Television

60% of LatAm pay-TV subs will have HD by 2018

October 22, 2014

The HD channel offer in Latin America has shown constant growth over the past three years, increasing the amount of both pay-TV and free-to-air channels available in each country. The number of HD subscribers across the region has also grown, counting 13.9 million as of Q1 2014.

The “Evolution of HD Channel Offerings in Latin America” report, published by Dataxis, reveals that from the seven largest markets in the region, Brazil was the largest one for HD customers – accounting for 63.5 per cent of the total – followed by Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela and Peru.

Furthermore, research by Dataxis identifies 196 HD channels with programming actively reaching viewers. Of them, 149 channels were distributed exclusively via pay-TV networks, while the remaining 47 were domestic FTA HD channels also available on pay-TV HD packages.

The report also shows there were 74 pay-TV operators with an HD offer as of July 2014, led by Argentina with 18 HD operators; Brazil follows with 17; Mexico has 13; Chile has 11; Colombia has six; while Venezuela and Peru have five and four respectively.

Dataxis also reports that Globo and Time Warner are the two content owners with the highest number of channels produced and released -12.5 per cent each- followed by US News Corp with 9.87 per cent and DirecTV with 7.89 per cent. Discovery, Televisa and América Móvil are next with 3.95 per cent each.

Nearly 60 per cent of pay-TV subscribers in the region will have HD by 2018.

Categories: Articles, Markets, Pay TV, Research, UHD