DirecTV, Claro continue LatAm pay-TV domination
August 24, 2016
Latin American pay-TV is dominated by DirecTV/Sky and Claro/América Móvil, which will together account for nearly half the region’s pay-TV subs by end-2016, according to a new report from Digital TV Research. This share will be maintained for the next five years. Three more pan-regional operators, Telefónica/Movistar, Tigo/Millicom and Liberty Global, harbour ambitions to increase their regional market shares.
With 130 platforms across 18 countries covered in the Latin America Pay TV Operator Forecasts report, 25 operators will collectively generate 88 per cent of Latin American pay TV subscribers by end-2016 – again this share will be maintained until the end of the forecast period. The regional pay-TV subscriber total will climb from 72.02 million by end-2016 to 83.56 million by 2021.
There are some sizeable domestic players beyond the pan-regional players. Argentina’s Cablevision (which also has operations in neighbouring Uruguay) will climb to fourth place by 2021. Mexico’s Televisa has merged its cable operations into a single entity. The company is also the majority owner of the Sky satellite TV platform.
The 25 featured operators will continue with their 90 per cent + share of Latin American pay-TV revenues for the next five years. DirecTV/Sky and Claro together will take 62 per cent of the 2016 total, although this share will fall slightly by 2021. Latin American pay-TV revenues will grow from $18.31 billion in 2016 to $19.82 billion by 2021.