Brazil - Digital Economy and Digital Media - Statistics and Analyses

Synopsis

Brazil’s digital media market is the largest in Latin America. In recent years the main operators have successfully developed quad-play services incorporating fixed line and mobile voice and data services as well as broadband and TV offerings. There is considerable room for further growth, which has encouraged investors such as AT&T to gain a foothold in the market. This activity was also stimulated by the pay TV law of 2011 which removed restrictions on foreign investment and on telcos being able to provide pay TV services alongside broadcasters.

The principal operators in Brazil’s pay TV sector are Net Serviços (Net), Sky Brasil, Claro TV, and Oi TV. Other operators include CTBC/Algar Telecom, Vivo (including the renamed GVT TV), TVA, and SIM TV.

The América Móvil group of companies Net and Claro TV together control more than half of the country’s pay TV market. With its cable TV service, Net alone accounts for one third of all pay TV subscribers in Brazil, but its share fell in the wake of the satellite TV boom that started around 2010. This has since waned, and the number of satellite TV subscribers has fallen sharply since 2014, largely due to economic pressures on subscribers and the effect of popular OTT video services.

This report provides an overview of Brazil’s pay TV market, accompanied by updated statistical data.

Key developments:

Regulator determines that OTT videostreaming services complement but do not replace pay-TV services; videostreaming and economic crisis causing drop in pay-TV subscriber base; Telefónica rebrands newly acquired GVT as Vivo; Embratel and Net Serviços merge with Claro Brasil; government releases revised ASO schedule; Net shows ambitious national expansion plans, Sky Brasil’s new shareholder agreement approved by Anatel; Vivo TV absorbs TVA; report includes the regulator’s market data to December 2016, operator data to Q4 2016, recent market developments.

Companies mentioned in this report:

Net Serviços de Comunicação, Sky Brasil, Claro TV, Vivo TV, Oi TV, GVT TV, Vivo, CTBC/Algar Telecom.