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Dish Mexico misses DTH targets
Chris Forrester ©RapidTVNews | 11-03-2010
EchoStar and MVS Telecommunications are seeking to acquire satellite operator SatMex. Dish Mexico’s latest numbers are just out, and they provide a clue as to the pay-TV situation in Mexico.
Dish Mexico achieved 478,000 subs, as at Dec 31. While this might be seen as a perfectly acceptable result for a business that went live only a little over a year ago, the actual numbers are significantly less than the company set itself for its first year’s target.
Ernesto Vargas, head of MVS, had stated that the company would achieve one million users by the end of 2009. According to figures disclosed by Mexico’s Federal Telecommunications Commission, the country closed 2009 with 2.3 million DTH users, that is a 51.8% growth if compared with 2008. Sky, the Televisa Group's subsidiary, whose services are targeted to the low income sector, achieved 79% of the DTH market, and accounted for 1.8 million subscribers.
One of Dish Mexico’s positioning strategies, according to NexTVLatam, was the low cost package targeted at the lower income sector. Telmex executed a service billing, collection and distribution agreement with Dish and recognized the possibility of becoming a DTH project investor.
In its report the Federal Telecommunications Commission mentions that the cable TV segment recorded a 5.7% growth over the last quarter of 2009, adding 5,042 subscribers (the lowest growth rate since 2003). On the other hand, the number of MMDS users showed a 29.8% fall, to 488,000 subscribers by the end of the year.
© Rapid TV News 2010
