A. Guttmann
Research Lead covering media
Pay TV in Mexico - statistics & facts
Mexico is, by far, the largest pay TV market in Latin America. According to the estimates, the North American country was home to more than 18 million subscribers in 2022, more than Brazil and Chile combined. The massive user base is forecast to continue to expand – which helps to explain the constant growth of the segment throughout recent years. Between 2014 and 2023, pay TV revenue in Mexico more than doubled, surpassing 140 billion Mexican pesos in the latter year. The telecommunication service is so popular that over half of all Mexican TV households had access to pay TV as of April 2023.
It will, however, remain a constant challenge for the pay TV providers to compete with a business model offering thousands of series and films instead of hundreds of channels.
The evolving market participation
The pay TV market in Mexico revolves around a few big players. Altogether, Grupo Televisa and Megacable accounted for more than 80 percent of all pay TV subscriptions in Mexico at the end of 2022. Televisa alone held a share of almost two-thirds of the user base – the conglomerate co-controls Sky alongside AT&T in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Central America. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Televisa also boasted the largest pay TV revenue results at the end of 2022, accounting for 32 percent of the total. However, Televisa's and Megacable's dominance is challenged by other players, mainly Totalplay. During a mid-2021 survey, Totalplay was the best-evaluated pay TV provider in Mexico. And so, a year later the company climbed to the second spot in the revenue ranking, showing the strength of the consumer voice in the market. The brand belongs to a holding known as Grupo Salinas, whose operations span beyond the realm of media and telco and include finances, transportation, and sports, among others.Competition for content
Like everywhere else, online content poses an unparalleled challenge to legacy media also in Mexico. In fact, streaming popularity is growing so strong that within only three months of 2023 its viewing time increased at the cost of pay TV. And the global trend of streaming expansion might be more than a cultural shift. Close to half of respondents of a 2023 survey stated that price was a reason for not subscribing to pay TV in Mexico. Besides costing more than most subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services, pay TV relies on an abundance of channels – which, interestingly, turns out to be the main reason to subscribe to these services according to Mexican consumers.It will, however, remain a constant challenge for the pay TV providers to compete with a business model offering thousands of series and films instead of hundreds of channels.
