Mexico. In today's relevant audiovisual content market, there is a multiplicity of alternatives that enable access through different platforms, devices and technologies.
This growing ecosystem includes traditional players such as open and restricted television to digital and social networks that allow the consumption of short videos, series, documentaries, and even feature films.
Despite this circumstance, the leadership of open television persists in terms of reach, availability and preference for audiences in Mexico. The metrics of the 2023 National Survey of Audiovisual Content Consumption (ENCCA) carried out by the Federal Institute of Telecommunications (IFT) account for this.
Free-to-air TV in the lead. In this regard, the ENCCA 2023 reveals that out of a total of 95% of households that have a television at home, 75% watch open television content either through broadcast signals or via pay TV.
Likewise, access to open television through the Internet continues to rise, such that 11% of Mexicans aged 7 or older access this content via sites of the main providers or TV Everywhere applications.
The ease and free access, the diversity and extended availability of the signals, as well as the relevance in the transmission of live content such as news and sporting events, continue to place open TV at the forefront of the content offer through digital media.
Despite this, attributes such as ubiquity, availability of multi-device platforms, affordability of access, among others, have boosted the consumption of audiovisual content on the internet, such that 54% of the population aged seven or older accesses digital platforms.
Audiovisual Consumption Habits. Audiences in Mexico tend to favor the consumption of audiovisual content through free alternatives, that is, without additional costs to the internet connection or availability of signals.
That is why in the consumption of audiovisual content through the internet, those alternatives of free access stand out, such as YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, among other alternatives. While only half (51%) of these people pay for a regular subscription to platforms such as Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, Prime Video, etc.
In comparative terms, the average consumption of free-to-air television content per day (2.5 hours) exceeds that of any of these digital platforms. Among the first places are Netflix (2.2 hours), Facebook (2.2 hours), YouTube (2.0 hours), TikTok (2.0 hours) and HBO Max (1.8 hours).
The growing adoption of connectivity and the upward trajectory in the consumption of audiovisual content online makes it essential to measure, analyze and size the habits of audiences under the same magnifying glass as those traditional media. This requires timely, truthful and transparent information, a task to which the ENCAA prepared by the IFT year after year contributes to a large extent.
At the same time, it is clear that traditional and digital media compete for the same objective, to capture a greater portion and attention of audiences that today have a growing plurality of alternatives for access to limited audiovisual products.
It is necessary to have a regulatory framework that levels the competitive playing field for both groups, eliminates the competitive advantages that currently favor digital platforms, and issues regulatory mechanisms to prevent and sanction anti-competitive practices and free competition.
Audiences, advertisers, content generators and platforms require a level playing field to have competitive, diverse and quality alternatives.
Text written by Ernesto Piedras of The Competitive Intelligence Unit, The CIU.
