Mexico pay TV now bigger than Brazil – report

Mexico overtook Brazil to become Latin America’s largest pay TV market in 2016, according to a report.

Digital TV Research’s Latin American Pay TV Forecasts study shows Brazil has been losing subscribers since November 2014, while Mexico has benefited from uptake of prepaid satellite TV.

However, Brazil will remain the top regional territory by revenues, bringing in a forecasted US$6.9 billion, more than double the US$3.2 billion Mexico brings in. This is primarily because Brazil’s subs rates are higher than Mexico, whose prepaid services are less lucrative.

Mexico had a total of just over 21 million pay TV subs in 2016, compared with 18.8 million in Brazil and 8.8 million in the third largest territory, Argentina.

Mexico’s number will rise to 22.24 million next year, before rising to 25.26 million in 2022.

Brazil, in contrast, will fall to 18.66 million in 2017 before rising to 20.86 million. Argentina will see a similar trajectory, falling slightly next year before rising to slightly above its 2016 figure.

Overall, there were 72.96 million pay TV subs in Latin America in 2016, a figure that will rise to 83.47 million in five years’ time. That rate of growth is slower than the 2010-2016 period, when 31 million pay TV subs were added across the region.

The top pay players in Mexico currently are American Movil, which had 14.61 million subs at end-2016 (most of whom come under its Claro brand), while DirecTV, which operates throughout the region and owns Sky Brasil, had 20.49 million. They accounted for 48% of regional pay TV subs.