Latin America’s economic headaches have been especially painful for satellite TV. DirecTV Latin America filed for bankruptcy after building up a debt pile of US$1.6 billion. Its main competitor, Sky Latin America, lost $386 million in 2002. “It’s a difficult time for TV in the region,” says Carlos Rodriguez, manager for the Americas at Pyramid Research. In 2002, Latin America’s pay TV subscriber base contracted by 7%, which along with the devaluation of local currencies decreased revenues to $3.7 billion from $5.1 billion the previous year, Pyramid says. Growth will be flat in 2003. Enter Australia’s News Corp., which now controls Sky and DirecTV. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s team should be able to consolidate the services, ultimately lowering subscription fees compared to cable, analysts say. But even that might not be enough to get viewers fighting over the remote. Regional annual income per capita hovers around $4,000. For many Latin Americans, satellite television is still a luxury item, let alone costly programming packages. Financially bedraggled countries like Argentina may have hit bottom, but they’ll need to bounce pretty high to entice people into paying extra for all those foreign movie channels.

posted by Administrator at 12:18 am & filed under Dish Network |