So far this year, interest in opinion programs in the region's markets has clearly picked up, with Costa Rica, Honduras and El Salvador recording the largest increases in interactions associated with the topic.
Through a system that monitors in real time changes in consumer interests and preferences in Central American countries, developed by the Trade Intelligence Unit of CentralAmericaData, it is possible to project short and long term demand trends for the different products, sectors and markets operating in the region.
In El Salvador, the state-owned Canal 10 began broadcasting the open digital signal, and in the next three years it should be implemented by private television stations.
The General Superintendence of Electricity and Telecommunications (Siget) reported that the change from analog and satellite transmissions to a digital signal is progressing successfully, as several private providers have conducted successful transmission tests.
In 2017, countries in the region imported $198 million worth of televisions from Mexico, and 57% were purchased by companies in Guatemala and Costa Rica.
Figures from the information system "Trade between Central America and Mexico", compiled by the Business Intelligence Unit at CentralAmericaData : [GRAFICA caption = "Click to interact with graph"]
The Superintendency of Competition has ruled that conditions be set on the acquisition of the companies Caribeña and Caribeña Cable de El Salvador by Telemóvil El Salvador.
From a statement issued by the Superintendency of Competition:
Starting from very low levels, pay TV is growing in Central America, with 4.4 million subscribers foreseen by 2018.
"... In just four years between 2008 and 2012, all of the six Central American countries saw increases in the average subscription rates of pay TV from between 21.4% to 31.3% of households with televisions. Measured in nominal terms, it amounted to a net addition of nearly 1.15 million new subscribers during the period, going from 1.5 million customers at the end of 2008 to over 2.6 million by the end of 2012 .... this upward trend will continue in the medium term. Towards 2018, it is expected that over 40% of households with televisions in the region (4.4 million) will subscribe to a pay TV service, which still generates significant room for future growth. "
Tigo, Claro, Movistar and Digicel have trimmed some of their prices up to 50%, looking for a larger slice of the telecommunications market.
They have implemented various promotions, ranging from lower international, land and mobile phone calls, internet access and cable television to cell phones that can be acquired from as low as $7.
A study by Signals Telecom Consulting estimated that in 2015 Salvadoran telecommunications companies will sell more than $1.870 million.
“This is because companies have already started to create ‘combos’ with their services (landline, mobile, cable and Internet), in order to increase their revenues and retain more customers”, reported Laprensagrafica.com.
In 2015 Central America will sell $2 billion in paid television and broadband services, both wireless and cable.
A report from consulting company Signals Telecom foresees a battle in broadband services, as the average speeds offered in Central America are below South American and Caribbean averages.
The group, Emisoras Unidas, announced the launch of the "Proyecto del Futuro II," a strategic alliance of communications media.
"Proyecto del Futuro II" is a strategic Alliance of 44 radio stations, three regional television channels, 800 outdoor ad spaces and seven websites, also includes the Central American representation of the channels MTV, VH1, and Nickelodeon.
In El Salvador, the providers of cable TV, Sky, Claro TV, and Amnet/Tigo, are waging a tough battle to obtain clients.
The weapon utilized in this war is the aggressive promotion of new services and programming packages intensely marketed via different types of media.
In an article by Ileana Laínez V. in Elsalvador.com, she reports that "...Sky has managed to successfully incentivize a competitive market in cable or satellite television by offering unique and popular programming to Salvadorian viewers. The Claro and Tigo companies, which were recently absorbed into the operations of Amnet, do not stay behind and they have begun to fight with even more strength for a market that they had already believed was theirs. Amnet, which controls the major slice of the pie in the market, has 400,000 clients in the Central American region. Claro has been able to grab seven percent of the domestic market in a short amount of time."
El Salvador is the first country in Central America where there was a complete merger.
Tigo’s parent company, Millicom International Cellular S. A., invested $14 million to expand Amnet's network in the country.
La prensagrafica.com reported statements by Ignacio Baratelli, CEO of Tigo El Salvador: "Amnet is now Tigo. Beginning today, all customers are covered under the same Tigo Banner. Integration of the two companies represents 800 direct and approximately 5 thousand indirect jobs and over 45 thousand outlets in El Salvador, of which 60% are micro businesses."
The consumer is becoming a “prosumer.” Ad messages are no longer in one direction. They have become a dialogue instead.
It was Alvin Toffler who coined the term "prosumer" when he envisioned a scenario in which businesses would initiate a process of change to mass-produced customized products in order to continue increasing their profits in a market saturated with mass-produced standard products.
The Swedish firm Millicom has purchased the telecommunications company AMNET for 510 million dollars, and will acquire its 350,000 cable clients in Honduras, Costa Rica and El Salvador.
AMNET offers services of cable television, telephone and internet as a multimedia "Triple Play" package.
The company has the biggest fiber optics network in the region and is the largest cable company in El Salvador and Costa Rica.
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