‘SVOD to dominate free’ in Latin America

Subscription VOD services will continue to dominate free OTT offers in Latin America, according to new research.

Digital TV Research predicts SVOD will contribute 62% of regional revenues from OTT television episodes and movies in 19 Latin American territories to 2022.

This equates to US$2.86 billion (€2.43 billion) of a US$4.6 billion total.

The overall picture for OTT services in the region is overwhelmingly positive, Digital TV Research’s stats suggest, with the US$1.86 billion taken from the medium last year set to more than double.

Latin America’s pan-regional SVOD market is booming, with international services Netflix, HBO Go, Crackle and Movistar Play and Amazon Prime Video competing with localised players such as Claro Video and Blim.

Digital TV Research described the pan-regionals as “adding a competitive edge to the SVOD sector”.

Netflix will remain the largest pan-regional, though it will only take half of all subs, compared to 62% in2016.

Amazon, Mexico-based Blim and Claro Video are all set for growth, with HBO Go and Crackle doing from miniscule figures in 2016 to around one million subs by 2022.

“Claro Video and Movistar Play will have a relatively modest number of paying subscribers,” said Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV Research.

“However, many more people will access these platforms for free as part of their mobile subscriptions. The same is true of HBO Go, where many homes can gain access to the online service for free as part of their pay TV subscription.”

The Latin America OTT TV and Video Forecasts also predicts the region to have 32.54 million SVOD subscribers by 2022, which is nearly double the 17.08 million recorded at the end of the 2016.

Brazil will account for the most, with 34% of subs, followed by Mexico with 28%.