inview_inview 12/07/2013 18:00 Page 1
he next decade promises to be an exciting one for the digital TV industry across Latin America. Unparalleled growth in both pay-TV subscriptions and broadband users are expected over this time, with the region promising to have a very different TV and communication footprint by the end of the decade. Two main events driving this change are the football World Cup in 2014 and the 2016 Olympics, both held in Brazil. Together, these events will make Brazil the hotspot location for the region’s quickly evolving TV and communication networks. Brazil alone will add 43m d igital TV households between 2012 and 2018, according to a recent report by Digital TV
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Research, with Mexico contributing an extra 15m. Experts suggest that this shift to digital in Brazil is expected as a result of economic growth in the region. With growth we have seen a significant rise in the middle classes, a section of the population which traditionally takes on pay-TV and digital TV services as a status indicator. Overall, more than four in five homes are expected to have digital TV services by 2018. This equates to 100m additional digital TV households across the region by 2018 – a major leap considering that less than a third of homes at the end of 2012 had digital TV.
Key growth drivers
Satellite is expected to be the key driver for this growth, with nearly half of all homes taking a DTH pay-TV subscription by 2018. But most interesting is the expected rise in digital terrestrial homes, with FTA DTT expected to be the dominant platform for TV viewing in 2018, according to Digital TV Latin America report. This makes sense when you consider the geographic layout of most countries across Latin America – with concentrations of people in the main cities, mixed with large land masses where the population is disparate. Satellite and terrestrial services provide the simplest way to address households across a wide geographic area.
This does have repercussions for the flip side of this TV revolution – the growth in Internet subscriptions. Accessing the internet, and by default any services that use the internet as the distribution method, such as OTT, becomes difficult outside of the main city regions. This divide won’t become necessarily apparent for some time though, as we first need to see widespread broadband penetration in the urban areas. The Governments are aware of this and reacting accordingly. In Brazil the Government is investing $9 billion in broadband infrastructure over the next four years. This is driven partly by the much larger ($30 billion) investment it is making in the World Cup and Olympics.
Sport leads the way
Sport has proven itself to be a key driver to both internet and TV services globally. In the UK it was the 2006 World Cup that helped drive sales of the (then newly launched) HD-ready TVs. The same situation has been proven time and time again, with the Major League Baseball (MLB) World Series in the USA, and the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, the list goes on. When sport is performed at the highest level, the viewing public expect to be able to experience it the best possible way too. The 2012 London Olympics set the standard for how to provide the world with access to these world-leading events. With Brazil hosting the Olympics four years later, all eyes will be on how ??????????????????????????()?????Y??=QP?????????????????????1??????????????????
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