Brazil - Broadcasting - Background Report

Synopsis

The pay TV industry in Brazil had a late start. The first operations began in 1989, when pay TV services were already widely available in developed countries and in neighbouring Argentina. During the first half of the 1990s, three players fought for market leadership: Net Serviços and Multicanal Participações, which were strong in cable, and Tevecap, which was primarily an MMDS operator. Then, due to the Latin American economic crisis of 2001/2002, pay TV subscriber growth froze for a couple of years. Net Serviços suffered badly from the recession, which exacerbated its previous indebtedness from network expansion and currency depreciations. For two consecutive years, the operator saw its customer base shrink. The market started to recover in 2004, regaining momentum in 2005/06. This report provides background information for the more regularly updated Brazil - Broadcasting. As such, it covers details on the history and development of Brazil’s mobile market that are absent from the more up-to-date report, but it does not contain forecasts or statistics.