Brazil adds 2.86 million satellite TV subscribers in 2012

Monday, January 28th, 2013
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According to Brazil’s Agência Nacional de Telecomunicações (Anatel), the country’s pay TV subscriber base ended 2012 at 16.2 million, with more than 3.4 million new subscribers being added during the year – an annual growth rate of 27.0%.

In the fourth quarter 790 thousand new subscribers were added, with satellite once again taking the lion’s share with 687 thousand net additions. Satellite added 2.86 million for the year as a whole and Oi overtook Telefônica/Abril to become the third largest pay TV operator in the country by subscriber count.

                     New subscribers
              Total         (January      Annual
Year  subscriptions     to December)  Growth (%)
----  -------------  ---------------  ----------
2007      5,348,571          765,446       16.70
2008      6,320,852          972,281       18.18
2009      7,473,476        1,152,624       18.24
2010      9,768,993        2,295,517       30.72
2011     12,744,025        2,975,032       30.45
2012     16,188,957        3,444,932       27.03

Pay TV subscribers by technology:

               2011                                            2012      Change      Change
         ----------  ----------------------------------------------     4Q 2012     4Q 2012
                 4Q          1Q          2Q          3Q          4Q  v, 3Q 2012  v, 4Q 2011
         ----------  ----------  ----------  ----------  ----------  ----------  ----------
MMDS        240,562     217,729     189,658     163,895     142,113     -21,782     -98,449
Cable     5,518,127   5,714,957   5,893,447   6,074,535   6,199,159     124,624     681,032
DTH       6,984,810   7,738,880   8,448,529   9,157,412   9,844,090     686,678   2,859,280
Others          526       3,841       3,549       3,593       3,595           2       3,069
         ----------  ----------  ----------  ----------  ----------  ----------  ----------
Total    12,744,025  13,675,407  14,535,183  15,399,435  16,188,957     789,522   3,444,932

Pay TV subscribers by operator:

                         2010        2011     1Q 2012     2Q 2012     3Q 2012     4Q 2012
                   ----------  ----------  ----------  ----------  ----------  ----------
NET/Embratel        5,338,151   6,997,382   7,452,659   7,824,438   8,167,899   8,494,999
SKY/DIRECTV         2,552,039   3,796,614   4,138,215   4,475,837   4,771,011   5,038,863
Oi                    402,062     351,183     395,574     486,539     603,471     748,758
Telefônica/Abril      486,292     545,824     530,121     496,429     615,166     594,907
GVT                         0      32,136     127,218     219,896     351,408     425,635
Algar Telecom          81,229      93,984      98,152     104,937     108,994     112,984
ViaCabo                84,075      96,646      99,338     101,067     104,032     106,916
 Others               659,403     668,686     672,466     663,041     677,184     665,895
                   ----------  ----------  ----------  ----------  ----------  ----------
  Total             9,768,993  12,744,025  13,675,407  14,535,183  15,399,435  16,188,957