Data: Brazilian pay-TV subs down 15%
November 7, 2023
From Branislav Pekic in Rome
The number of pay-TV subscribers in Brazil fell to 12.3 million in September 2023, continuing the downward trend. This represents a drop of 15.1 per cent compared to the same month in 2022 and 1.6 per cent in the past month, according to figures released by the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel).
Market leader Claro grew its market share slightly to 45 per cent (+0.3 per cent), with 5.54 million subscribers, down 0.9 per cent on the previous month.
Sky Brasil came in second with a market share of 28.6 per cent (-0.1 per cent) and 3.52 million subscribers (-1.9 per cent), followed by Oi with 15.6 per cent (-0.4 per cent) and 1.92 million subscribers (-4.1 per cent m/m and -29.4 per cent y/y), while Vivo had 858,300 pay-TV customers (-0.4 per cent) and 7 per cent (+0.1 per cent).
It’s worth noting that the regulator’s numbers don’t include subscribers to streaming pay-TV services like Claro TV+ or DirecTV Go.
DTH technology accounted for 55 per cent of pay-TV accesses, followed by cable TV (34 per cent) and FTTH (11 per cent).
The continued drop in pay-TV subscribers in Brazil is due partly to the rise of unregulated streaming services, which offer more flexibility and choice to consumers.
Brazilian pay-TV operators also face competition from illegal pay-TV providers. Anatel estimates that there are 7 million pirated devices in use in the country. Since the start of the year, the regulator has blocked over 3,000 servers that were illegally enabling pirated TV boxes to operate.
In recent days, Anatel carried out the largest operation ever since cracking down on pirated devices in February 2023, blocking about 80 per cent of TV box devices that were illegally transmitting signals from cable TV operators. Last month, Anatel also opened an anti-piracy laboratory that can map and block clandestine devices that capture TV signals.