Colombia. The Communications Regulation Commission, CRC, published the study "The role of OTT services in the communications sector in Colombia - Year 2019", a document that presents figures on the use of online applications in Colombia and identifies trends in the consumption of communications content and services.
This study aims to update the panorama of the penetration, scope and role played by OTT services in the Colombian communications sector at the end of 2019. In the study, carried out through surveys in 44 cities of the country including a rural sample, the hypotheses raised in the study published the previous year were revalidated.
Some relevant data from the study:
Audiovisual Services
71% of households have subscription TV service, while 18% consume television through DTT (3 percentage points more than the previous year).
The means preferred by Colombians to consume audiovisual content are subscription TV with values according to the type of content ranging between 34% (musical) and 50% (news) and open TV-DTT with values between 29% (musical) and 45% (telenovelas).
33% of respondents consume free audiovisual OTT services, mainly YouTube with 26%.
24% of respondents consume paid OTT, with Netflix being the favorite with 17%, followed by other platforms such as Claro Video, HBO Go and DirecTV Play each with 3%, and Amazon Prime and Movistar play each with 1%.
Young single people between 15 and 26 years old are the ones who consume the most audiovisual OTT (43%), of which 53%, called "heavy users", consume audiovisual content for more than 8 hours a week through the internet.
38% of people who do not consume OTT services are over the age of 51, are married or in a free union, and have children.
In subscription TV, the consumption of news (66%), novels (58%) realities (56%), and sports (48%) prevails. In paid OTTs, the consumption of series (40%), films (37%) and documentaries (33%) predominates.
Courier services
43% of the surveyed population left out traditional text messages (SMS) for the use of online applications for sending messages.
WhatsApp (96%), Facebook (59%) and Skype (6%) are the favorite applications (OTT) of Colombians for sending messages online.
As people get older, they have a lower propensity to use OTT messaging apps.
Voice Services
The use of calls per application went from 66% in 2018 to 74% in 2019, while traditional calls are used by 87%.
Whatsapp accounts for 70% of calls per app.
42% of the group of young people between 15 and 25 years old make use of call APPs compared to 15% of people over 65 years old.
15% of users have not made use of Apps and only make traditional voice calls.
The figures presented also led to the conclusion that:
OTTs remain an add-on to the subscription TV service.
The demand for OTT services does not affect the consumption (in terms of subscription to basic or premium plans) of the traditional television service, no cord-cutting phenomenon is proven since only 2.2% of OTT users canceled their TV service by subscription.
People who use apps the most spend more money on the fixed internet plan, as well as on mobile devices.
Calls made through OTT voice services increased in 2019 by 8 percentage points.
Participation in text message usage per operator decreased between 2018 and 2019.
A positive relationship was evidenced between the number of messages sent through OTT services, both with spending on devices and with the expenditure or value of the monthly mobile plan.
Faced with these findings, Carlos Lugo Silva, Commissioner and Executive Director of the CRC indicated that "Knowledge of the dynamics of OTT services within the communications sector is part of the agenda of the CRC. This study is a vitally important input as a source of consultation that provides an overview of the OTT market and its dynamics, which reaffirms the relevance that OTT service applications have been acquiring in the communications sector."
See the study "The Role of OTT Services in the Communications Sector in Colombia – Year 2019" here
