Mexico's Pay TV subscribers reach 10.4 million in 1Q 2011

DISTRITO FEDERAL, Mexico — At the end of the first quarter of 2011, Mexico’s telecommunications sector had registered growth of 12.7% year-on-year according to the country’s Comisión Federal de Telecomunicaciones (COFETEL). Satellite television remained the most dynamic segment of the sector.

According to Mexico’s Telecommunications Sector Production Index (Índice de Producción del Sector Telecomunicaciones – ITEL), an indicator published by COFETEL that measures the behaviour of the principal services offered by the industry, in the first quarter the satellite TV (DTH) segment had registered subscriber growth of 66% compared to the same period in 2010. At the end of March there were 4.6 million DTH users.

MMDS registered a decrease of 30.7% to end with 303,000 subscribers and Cable TV subscriptions increased by 4.2% with the number of subscribers for this segment reaching 5.376 million.

Mexico pay TV subscribers (thousands) and growth rates:

        Cable TV  Growth  Satellite  Growth   MMDS  Growth     TOTAL  Growth
        --------  ------  ---------  ------  -----  ------  --------  ------
Dec-09   5,124.4    6.0%    2,439.8   60.1%  471.2  -31.9%   8,035.4   14.0%
Mar-10   5,174.7    5.6%    2,980.7   88.9%  424.0  -37.1%   8,579.4   20.0%
Jun-10   5,286.6    6.7%    3,518.4   98.4%  381.4  -38.4%   9,186.4   25.1%
Sep-10   5,333.8    6.8%    4,008.2   91.7%  345.7  -35.6%   9,687.7   27.1%
Dec-10   5,362.0    4.6%    4,367.7   79.0%  316.5  -32.8%  10,046.2   25.0%
Mar-11   5,397.0    4.3%    4,747.7   59.3%  293.8  -30.7%  10,438.5   21.7%

Source: Dirección de Información Estadística de Mercados, COFETEL

More: ITEL Primer trimestre 2011; Televisión Restringidos (.xls)