Venezuela adds 170,000 pay TV subscribers in 2Q 2014

CARACAS — According to preliminary statistics published by its Comisión Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (CONATEL), pay TV subscriptions in Venezuela at the end of June 2014 were 4.53 million, up from 3.80 million at the end of the second quarter of 2013 – an increase of 19.2% or 728 thousand. 170,456 susbscribers were added in the quarter.

Household penetration reached 61.68% with satellite taking 66% of the market versus 34% for cable TV.

                            Quarterly      Y-o-Y    Household
Year  Quarter  Subscribers  Additions  Additions  Penetration
----  -------  -----------  ---------  ---------  -----------
2011        I    2,611,476     60,646    185,992       37.38%
           II    2,615,122      3,646    158,996       37.51%
          III    2,684,731     69,609    197,864       38.08%
           IV    2,798,577    113,846    247,747       39.53%

2012        I    2,885,693     87,115    274,217       40.62%
           II    2,992,590    106,897    377,468       41.94%
          III    3,120,864    128,274    436,133       43.55%
           IV    3,404,298    283,434    605,721       47.38%

2013 (*)    I    3,614,224    209,926    728,531       50.11%
           II    3,800,658    186,434    808,069       52.51%
          III    3,921,288    120,630    800,424       53.98%
           IV    4,223,089    301,801    818,791       57.92%

2014 (*)    I    4,358,505    135,416    744,281       59.56%
           II    4,528,961    170,456    728,303       61.68%

Inter Venezuela acquired TuVes HD

The Venezuelan cable operator Inter -which has 700 thousand subscribers-, announced the purchase of the shareholding control of the Chilean DTH service TuVes HD, which operates in Chile, Peru, Paraguay, Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela, now focused on providing wholesale Pay-TV services.

The president of Inter, Eduardo Stigol, assured that “increasing our participation in TuVes HD, we saw the opportunity of organically developing our business. And by taking control of this company we provided it with the necessary strength to become a strong DTH provider and a natural partner by the growth of cable operators of the region”. Since 2012 the Inter Group of Venezuela offers VOD and DVR which reaches 80 cities of Venezuela.