Latin America. AT&T's purchase of DirecTV has just been approved in the U.S. market. The focus of the purchase serves strategic interests in the U.S. market aimed at improving AT&T's competitive position in the domestic broadband market.
DirecTV is the second largest Pay-TV operator in the United States with 20.35 million subscribers in 2014. DirecTV is the second largest Pay-TV operator in Latin America through the operation of two independent platforms: Sky Brasil and DirecTV Panamericana. In 2014, DirecTV added between them 12.5 million subscribers and revenues of USD 7,000
Million.
In Mexico, DirecTV is a minority shareholder of Sky; DTH operator managed by Televisa. If its three assets in Latin America are added, DirecTV would be the largest Pay-TV operator in the region; both by subscribers (19.25 million; 32.8% of regional share) and by revenue (USD 8,700 million in 2014; 23.7% of the total). Dataxis expects that in 2015, DirecTV's three Latin American operations will surpass the U.S. operation in number of customers.
DirecTV has a marginal presence in the telecommunications market via fixed wireless access platforms: 160,500 accesses between Argentina and Brazil and permits to operate spectrum in Colombia, Peru and Venezuela. DirecTV is the only player within the regional top-10 that does not have a telecommunications leg at the center of its service offering. DirecTV only has alliances with telecommunications operators for the assembly of triple packages in Argentina and Colombia.
Dataxis points out that AT&T reaches direcTV's Latin American business as a consequence, not as a sought objective and although AT&T executives have made public their enthusiasm for DirecTV's assets in Latin America, various scenarios would open up about the future of the operator:
- AT&T would maintain the status quo and follow DirecTV acting as an actor focused solely on pay-TV offerings.
- AT&T could follow in its footsteps in the United States and buy telecommunications assets in Latin America to achieve a multi-service offering.
- AT&T would decide to divest Pay-TV assets in Latin America.
At the end of 2014 AT&T decided to acquire the mobile assets of Iusacell and Nextel in Mexico. However, those assets will not allow it an immediate partnership with Sky Mexico. In fact, in 2015 Televisa has decided to re-enter the local mobile market as MVNO and on the Telcel network (América Móvil). In the rest of Latin America, AT&T does not have telecommunications assets aimed at the mass market.
In turn, AT&T has historically not exhibited a great expansionist vocation, so the increase of its assets outside the United States does not seem to be a medium-term objective. On the other hand, DirecTV Latin America cannot remain indefinitely away from the convergence trend that the region is having.
In a hypothetical sales scenario, Dataxis identifies several companies as potential stakeholders of one or more Pay-TV assets: América Móvil, Altice, Liberty Global, Telefónica and some others nationwide.
Analysis performed by Dataxis.
