LatAm OTT TV & Video Thrives Despite Free Services

London, UK, August 21, 2017--Revenues from OTT TV episodes and movies for 19 Latin American countries will reach US$ 4.60 billion in 2022; up from the US$ 1.87 billion recorded in 2016. SVOD will remain the region’s largest OTT revenue source; contributing US$ 2.86 billion by 2022 (62% of the total) according to Digital TV Research.

The Latin America OTT TV and Video Forecasts report forecasts 32.54 million SVOD subscribers by 2022; nearly double from the 17.08 million recorded at end- 2016. Brazil will account for 34% of the region’s SVOD subs by 2022, with Mexico bringing in a further 28%.

Pan-regional services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Claro Video, Blim, HBO, Crackle and Movistar Play are adding a competitive edge to the SVOD sector.

The top seven regional platforms will account for 88% of the region’s paying SVOD subscribers by end-2022. Netflix will remain the largest pan-regional SVOD platform by some distance, with half of the region’s total by 2022 (down from a 64% share in 2016). 

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