América Móvil's Claro in Ecuador and Paraguay, and Ecuador's public telco Corporación Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (CNT) were the three fastest growing pay-TV operators in Latin America during 2014, indicating the increasing importance of second-line markets in the region.
According to figures published by Dataxis, Claro and CNT saw the greatest addition of subscribers in the region during the year. In Ecuador, Claro's direct-to-home (DTH) and cable operations grew by 118%, while the public satellite platform's subs increased by 89.1%.
In Paraguay, cited as Latin America's most dynamic pay-TV market, Claro saw 86.1% growth.
Following the three leading operators, América Móvil's pay-TV business in Costa Rica grew by 64.5% last year, followed by Venezuela's CanTV, which increased subs by 58.6%.
But growth was also noticed among more nature markets, where no many changes were expected. Axtel's business in Mexico managed to grow by 54.1%, coming from a nearly non-existent pay-TV business, to reach a leading position in some areas of the country where competition is already very high.
