Luciano Zarlenga de BB
Quarantine boosted the growth of linear TV, VOD, and all the OTTs (established ones, new ones, and cable operators).
At the beginning of the confinement, a poll conducted by BB revealed that 63% of those consulted were consuming more content on OTT, 35% more on linear TV, and 20% more on OTT (opening on new contents).
Likewise, on-demand consumption increased by 30% and the platforms owned by cable operators (Flow, DIRECTV Go, and others) managed to increase the number of subscribers thanks to the strategy of giving access to most of their bases.
Now OTTs —after the peak of launches in 2015-16— are sealing alliances. Some examples are the agreements between Amazon Prime Video with Movistar+ in Mexico, Flow with Netflix in Argentina, or HBO with Mercado Libre to captivate the unbanked audience.
The one that has suffered most damage has been live streaming, whose main appeal for the user is access to his favorite live sport when he is not at home. Affected by confinement and suspension of sports shows, live streaming dropped, but had a slight rebound in June with the resuming of some European leagues.
“The pandemic will leave a positive impact on pay-TV. The situation is comparable to that of a world cup: the number of subscribers increases, post-World Cup, the peak generated by the event drops, but remains at a higher level compared to the pre-World Cup level,” explained Luciano Zarlenga, Chief Analytics Officer at BB.
