Pay TV subscribers in Costa Rica grew 14% in 2014

Tuesday, June 30th, 2015
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SAN JOSÉ — Costa Rica’s Superintendency of Telecommunications (Superintendencia de telecomunicaciones – SUTEL) has released a report on the country’s telecommunications market for the period 2010 to 2014.

Costa Rica ended 2014 with 732,546 pay TV subscribers, up 91,504 (14%) versus the end of 2013. The majority of subscribers (510,390) have their television delivered over cable networks, though satellite added the most subscribers (70,204) during the year, growing 48% year-on-year.

Tigo is the leading operator with 29% market share, followed by Cabletica at 22% and Claro at 16%.

Television subscribers by technology

                                         2013
           ----------------------------------
                Q1       Q2       Q3       Q4
           -------  -------  -------  -------
Cable TV   467,125  469,332  474,119  489,848
Satellite   99,610  116,371  130,495  146,936
IPTV           886    1,294    2,168    3,071
MMDS         1,136    1,097      922    1,187
           -------  -------  -------  -------
Total      568,757  588,094  607,704  641,042

                                         2014
           ----------------------------------
                Q1       Q2       Q3       Q4
           -------  -------  -------  -------
Cable TV   500,016  505,883  508,268  510,390
Satellite  162,355  171,641  186,591  217,140
IPTV         3,483    3,674    3,804    4,191
MMDS         1,091    1,093      876      825
           -------  -------  -------  -------
Total      666,945  682,291  699,539  732,546

Operator Market Shares

                       2010    2011    2012    2013    2014
                     ------  ------  ------  ------  ------
Tigo (Millicom)      39.87%  38.05%  35.68%  30.14%  28.80%
Cabletica            32.14%  30.02%  27.92%  23.98%  21.61%
Claro                    0%      0%      0%   9.17%  16.38%
Telecable económico   2.98%   4.39%   5.80%   9.37%  10.33%
Sky                  11.66%  13.02%  14.14%  13.74%   9.88%
Clabe Visión CR       5.91%   6.05%   6.09%   3.97%   3.07%
Coopelesca            1.69%   1.68%   1.96%   1.81%   1.84%
Coopesantos           0.27%   0.91%   1.67%   1.43%   1.55%
Others                5.42%   5.84%   6.70%   6.34%   6.49%