Colombian pay TV market to reach 5.3 million households by 2018

Dataxis’ latest research series reveals the size, market dynamics and projections for the Colombian pay TV market. The company will gather TV top executives in a new edition of NexTV Summit Colombia & Andean Region on November 18th & 19th in Bogota to discuss the future of TV market in Colombia

BUENOS AIRES — The Colombian pay TV market will reach 5.3 million households (HHs) by 2018, according to data published today by Dataxis. This figure will represent a 3.4% increase when compared to end-2015.

According to the new report “Pay TV Series 2015: Colombia”, households with CATV pay TV services will account for 64.8% of total Pay TV HHs in Colombia in 2015. Dataxis forecasts that CATV will remain the leading delivery network by 2018, although its market share will diminish over the years, due to a challenging economic environment, along with an increased competition.

In this sense, DTH networks will increase their market share from 30% in 2015 to 34.9% in 2018, while IPTV will grow from a 5.2% share in 2015 to 7.4% by 2018.

Although Colombia is the country with the fourth largest pay TV subscriber base in Latin America, legal pay TV household penetration will remain relatively low at 40.9% by end-2015. Dataxis believes that the proportion of households with legal Pay TV services will decrease to 39.3% by 2018.

At the end of Q2 2015, América Móvil group – owner of Claro TV – dominated the market with 43% share, followed by AT&T (DirecTV) with 21.5%. In a close third place, Colombian company UNE reached 20.3% of total pay TV market. Telefónica (Movistar TV) is fourth with only 8.9% of the market.

In turn, Dataxis forecasts that total pay TV revenues will reach USD884 million by 2018, with total ARPU (Average revenue per user) being USD13.89. DTH services will generate 50.9% of total revenues, CATV operations will represent 43.7% and IPTV the remaining 5.4%.

Most of the companies present in the market will participate in NexTV Summit Colombia 2015, organized by Dataxis in the Hotel Royal in Bogota, on November 18th&19th.