Central America. The number of subscribers to Pay-TV services in Central America and the Dominican Republic will grow from 3.58 million in 2014 to 5.57 million in 2018, according to a new report published by Dataxis.
At the end of 2014, Pay-TV subscribers represented 29.4% of the total number of Central American and Dominican households that had at least one television set. 22.4% of TV households made use of some illegal Pay-TV system, while the remaining 48.2% continued to use only free-to-air TV.
Although it is still at high levels, piracy has been falling significantly in proportion to the total universe of television households. In 2008, for every legitimate Pay-TV subscriber in the region, there were 2.4 households set up in an illegal system. This proportion dropped to less than an illegal connection by legitimate subscription for the first time in 2013. Dataxis projects that, by 2018, there will be fewer than 0.4 pirate homes for every legal subscription.
One of the reasons for this reduction is the accelerated degree of digitalization experienced by Pay-TV services in the region. While in 2008 only 14% of pay-TV households subscribed to a digital video package, this figure grew to 58.5% in just six years, and is expected to reach 81.1% in 2018, according to Dataxis. On the other hand, 2014 closed with 533 thousand subscribers to some pay-TV package in high definition (HD) in the seven countries surveyed in the study, which implied a year-on-year growth of this indicator of 86.1%.
Dataxis' new report, "Pay TV in Central America 2014-2018," describes the remarkable transformation the Central American pay-TV market has undergone over the past few years. A series of generalized improvements in the region's living standards were combined with the emergence of telecommunications and international media groups that have focused their strategic gaze on previously underserved markets but have a high growth potential," explained Juan Pablo Conti, Senior Analyst at Dataxis. "This has generated a whirlpool of launches of new services, mergers and acquisitions between operators that has given an unprecedented dynamism to the sector."
The report shows that Costa Rica had 20.5% of the regional total number of subscribers to TVpaga services in 2014, followed by Honduras (18.9%), the Dominican Republic (15.9%) and Panama (13.7%). The sale of Pay-TV services in Central America and the Dominican Republic generated revenues of USD 857.60 million in 2014. The annual turnover of the sector has been growing uninterruptedly since 2008, and is expected to reach USD 1,450 million by 2018.
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