Pay TV penetration continues to grow in Latin America

Faced with the market decline in Europe, pay TV, both cable and satellite, is in excellent health with continued growth and strong momentum in Colombia, Peru, Venezuela and Argentina.

According to a report from the Latin American Pay TV Advertising Council (LAMAC), the penetration of pay, cable and satellite television continues to grow in the first half of this year. Even in a market as mature and consolidated as the Argentine one, pay TV continues to grow with penetration figures that are already around 80% of homes.

Other markets that are experiencing greater growth are Colombia (77% penetration), Peru (53%) and Venezuela (50%).

Between 2005 and 2010, the growth of pay television penetration in homes was 74% in Peru; 64% in Chile; 60% in Brazil; 54% in Colombia; 39% in Venezuela; 37% in Mexico, and 15% in Argentina.

On the other hand, the markets with the greatest potential due to the number of inhabitants still show lower levels of penetration: Mexico, 36%, and Brazil, 22%, a higher rate than they had been showing.

According to LAMAC, this phenomenon is the consequence of the expansion of satellite content distributors and the expansion of the offer for subscribers, with low-cost proposals, especially in the Mexican market. In both countries, pay television currently exceeds eight million subscribed households.

On the contrary, payment in Europe has entered, according to Strategy Analytics, a certain recessive trend. European viewers, affected by the economic crisis, are migrating above all to the new multichannel digital television platforms: the proportion of households watching free and terrestrial digital TV increased from 12 to 23% in the same period. TO