According to a new report from Digital TV Research, rapid expansion meant that Brazilian DTH subscriptions overhauled cable as the most popular platform with considerable panache during the first six months of 2011. Further change is ahead as the government will soon amend legislation to allow telcos to offer full IPTV services.
Report author Simon Murray said: “Brazil’s economy is growing fast, leading to greater household income and a rapidly expanding middle class. Most major telcos have launched DTH platforms, and will follow up with IPTV/triple-play packages in the near future.”
The Brazil Digital TV Forecasts report states that pay-TV penetration will reach 35% of TV households by 2016, double the end-2010 figure. This means 22.2 million subscribers compared with 9.77 million at end-2010.
Even more dramatically, pay-TV revenues will total $6.64 billion (€4.61 billion) in 2016, more than triple the 2010 figure.
By 2016, Brazil is forecast to have 11.8 million pay DTH households, giving an 18.8% penetration rate. This is double the present total, but growth is expected to decelerate as telcos place greater emphasis on their fledgling IPTV services than on their DTH operations. DTH revenues are forecast to grow by $3 billion to reach $6.6 billion in 2016.
By 2016, Brazil will have 2.3 million paying IPTV subs (3.6% TV household penetration). These IPTV homes will generate revenues of $302 million.
Despite losing its most popular platform position to DTH, the cable sector is still growing – just not as fast as the other platforms. There will be 8.1 million cable subs (12.9% penetration) by 2016, up from 5.3 million (9.2%) at end-2010. Cable TV revenues will reach $1.58 billion in 2016, up from $1.09 billion in 2010.
