Despite slowing economic growth, the number of digital TV households in Latin America will double by 2020.
The Digital TV Latin America Forecasts report estimates 152 million digital TV households by 2020. Digital TV will climb from only 17.9% penetration of TV households at end-2010 to just over the halfway mark by end-2014 and onto 93.6% by 2020.
From the 19 countries covered in the forecasts, Brazil will add 28 million digital TV households during this time frame, with Mexico contributing an extra 11 million and Argentina nearly 5 million more. Puerto Rico was the first country to reach complete conversion to digital – in 2014. Panama and Uruguay will be the only other countries to reach complete digital conversion by 2020.
Primary FTA DTT will overtake pay satellite TV is the leading digital platform in 2016. The number of primary DTT homes will rocket from 4.2 million at end-2010 to 68.0 million by 2020 (giving 41.9% penetration).
Nearly 10 million pay satellite TV households will be added between 2014 and 2020, taking penetration to a quarter of TV households by 2020. However, much of its fast growth has already taken place.
About 18.2 million digital cable subscribers to be added between 2014 and 2020; taking penetration to a fifth of TV households. Conversely, the number of analog cable subscribers will plummet from 18.0 million to 4.3 million. IPTV will climb from 1.3 million subscribers in 2014 to 6.8 million by 2020.
Brazil ($8.6 billion in 2020) will remain the top country by pay TV revenues by some distance, followed by Mexico ($5.6 billion) and Argentina ($2.3 billion) – collectively taking 71% of the total.
Pay TV revenues in Latin America will grow by $2.6 billion between 2014 and 2020. Satellite TV will continue to be the largest pay TV platform, with revenues reaching $16.7 billion in 2020. Cable TV will bring in a further $5.9 billion. Digital cable TV revenues will overtake analog cable in 2014 and IPTV will pass analog cable in 2020.
For more information on the Digital TV Latin America Forecasts report, please see the Broadband TV News webshop.
