LatAm 2015 | Page 12

LatAm telco revenue to hit $110bn by 2018 Latin America’s telecom services generated $107.7 billion (€96.5bn) in revenue in 2014, according to data from Dataxis. By 2018, this figure will grow by 2%, reaching $109.8 billion. Data includes combined revenue from mobile, fixed telephony and fixed broadband services in the region’s seven largest markets: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela. At the end of 2014, the mobile sector accounted for close to 69% of total telecom revenue. Although Brazil and Mexico have the highest number of lines, Chile shows the highest per capita mobile penetration rate in the region (151.7%), followed by Argentina (145.8%). America Móvil and Telefonica emerge as the region’s top wireless service groups, measured by number of accesses. Meanwhile, the fixed broadband sector accounted for nearly 12% of total revenue in 2014. Dataxis expects this figure to grow to close to 15% by 2018. Argentina is the country with the highest fixed broadband penetration rate among the countries surveyed, with 49.5%, followed by Chile (47%). Dataxis believes that DSL in its different variants will continue to be Latin America’s dominant last-mile access technology by 2018 – even when its market share will diminish in favour of other options such as cable modem and fibre to the home (FTTH). In the fixed telephony sector, Brazil has the highest volume of operational lines, followed by Mexico. Brazil’s Oi is the company with the highest number of active fixed telephony lines in Latin America, with little over 15 million subscriptions as of the end of 2014. Mexico’s Telmex is next, with over 13 million. Dataxis estimates that the total number of active fixed telephony lines in the region’s seven largest markets will fall by 4.6% by 2018. At the same time, traditional telephony will begin to lose market share against new VoIP options, including those offered via hybrid fibre-coaxial (HFC) networks. As of year-end 2014, cable operators’ phone lines already accounted for nearly 12% of total fixed telephony lines in the analysed countries. This proportion is expected to grow to 18% by 2018. LatAm distribution for BBC Earth F rom September 1, BBC Earth will be distributed by BBC Worldwide across Latin American pay-TV services, on cable, direct-to-home (DTH) and IPTV platforms. Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela will all receive the channel which offers adventure series, technology and science programming as well as local shows. “Like in the rest of the world, Latin American viewers are very interested in getting to know the world we are living in,” Pinto LAMAC VP L AMAC, the Latin American Advertising Council, has appointed Lynette Pinto (right) as its new Vice president of business development. Previously, she has worked for companies including Publicidad Siboney, Kraft Foods, AT&T, Telemundo, and NBC TV Networks Distribution. Gary McBride, president and CEO of LAMAC, said that Pinto’s appointment represented a significant step in the business development strategy of the organisation. 12 LATAM Briefing said Paul Dempsey, president for global markets, BBC Worldwide. “The region’s audience will find the best natural history “Lynette has a deep understanding of how the advertising business works. Her experience has provided her with a broad knowledge of the different angles of media planning and buying and this is a fact that LAMAC understands as her biggest potential to strengthen the pay-TV business in the region.” Pinto said her appointment reflected a desire to take her experience and use it to benefit an industry that is going through a very interesting time. “Pay-TV in LatAm still has much room to grow. My commitment to LAMAC will be to take the business towards a path in which advertisers in the region can achieve a better understanding of how to use this medium and programming in the world on a single channel from now on.” The Latin American premiere follows BBC Earth’s launch in Poland, the Nordics, Hungary, Romania and Turkey during 2015. In addition to BBC Earth, the BBC Worldwide portfolio in Latin America comprises BBC Entertainment and CBeebies, which is also available for the US Hispanic market. “Thanks to our partners, BBC Earth will be hitting millions of viewers across the region,” added Anna Gordon, BBC executive VP for Latin America. “Working with the best documentary editors has enabled us to build up a channel which inspires people.” make the most of it in order to generate the greatest return on their advertising investment in pay-TV.”