When the Central American economies begin to relax the restrictions that have been adopted to prevent the spread of covid-19, sales of pay television service are forecast to fall by at least 2%.
Using a demand/income sensitivity model developed by CentralAmericaData's Commercial Intelligence Area, it is possible to project the variations that household demand for different goods and services will undergo as the most critical phases of the spread of covid-19 are overcome and the measures restricting mobility in the region's countries are lifted.
In the first nine months of 2017, Central American countries imported $282 million worth of televisions, 8% more than was bought during the same period in 2016.
Figures from the information system on the the Televisions Market in Central America, compiled by the Business Intelligence Unit at CentralAmericaData: [GRAFICA caption = "Click to interact with graph"]
The number of customers of pay TV services has increased from 15,000 six years ago to 133,000 today.
The data, provided by the National Authority of Public Services (ASEP), also indicates that ten suppliers are competing for this growing market.
Prensa.com reports that "the big jump in the number of subscribers came in 2010, when the number of subscribers exceeded 100,000 and continued to skyrocket.
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. "