Latin American pay TV to flatten over next six years

The pay TV decline in Latin America is expected to lose momentum and settle at 53-54 million subs from 2023 to 2029, reports Digital TV Research.

Source: Digital TV Research

The market research firm revealed in its latest’s findings that pay TV subs in Latin America will only decline by 1.7 million from 2023 to reach 53.1 million by 2029. This is down by approximately 20 million from the peak of 73 million in 2017.

In addition, Digital TV research forecasts pay TV subs will only fall by 200,000 from 2024 in the next five years.

Brazil lost 9 million subscribers between 2015 and 2023, but will lose 2 million between 2023 and 2029 to total 7.8 million, said the company.

Mexico which has more pay TV subscribers than Brazil despite having many fewer TV household, has lost subscribers since its peak year of 2016 at 21 million. However, according to Digital TV Research’s predictions it will now settle at around 16 million.

“Most Latin American countries – not all – are coming out of economic recessions and periods of social unrest, which adversely affected the pay TV sector,” explained Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV Research. “Pay TV also has to battle against the well-served SVOD sector, with the major US-based platforms all operational in Latin America.”