Digital pay-TV in LatAm to reach 94% of total subs in 2022
June 26, 2017
Digital pay-TV continues to expand in Latin America. According to Dataxis, by 2016 digital TV was up to 85 per cent of total TV subscribers and is expected to reach 94 per cent by 2022, thus, making analogue pay-TV increasingly marginal.
Growth is driven by the progression of DTH, a 100 per cent digital technology currently used by 50.8 per cent of the total subscribers in Latin America, and forecasted to reach 51.5 per cent in 2022 as per Dataxis’ latest research. In addition, cable TV subscribers (the second largest pay-TV technology in the region) are increasingly choose Digital Cable. In 2016, Digital Cable reached 68 per cent of all cable TV subscribers and forecasts to arrive at 85 per cent in 2022.
On the other hand, fully digital IPTV technology is being developed at a sustained pace. Two per cent of pay-TV subscribers used this technology in 2016 and Dataxis expects it will be at 6 per cent in 2022 with a subscriber base that will be multiplied by three and a half times. Marginal pay-TV technologies such as analog MMDS and analog UHF terrestrial TV will disappear completely over the next five years.
Dataxis’ analysis highlights that the expansion of Digital Pay-TV follows different penetration rates in Latin American countries, even among the most advanced economies. Some have already implemented an “analogue Cable TV blackout”. In fact, there is no regulation about it in the region and countries like: Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Peru, Panama and Puerto Rico already have more than 90 per cent digital subscribers in 2016. However, some countries namely: Argentina, Bolivia, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua have a penetration below 60 per cent.