The moment of super aggregators has arrived

Audience behavior gives another glance at the impact platforms are having in other markets. Weekly hours that users dedicate to linear TV are decreasing due to the vast audiovisual offer. In a report of the market consultant BB-Business Bureau for PRODU on the Colombian market, it can be seen that the consumption of weekly hours of open TV fell from 4.5 to 4.0 and cable TV went from 8.4 to 7.6 weekly hours, in the last four months of 2018 and 2019.

“Users dedicate more hours to online platforms, such as Netflix, for example, whose consumption grew progressively year to year. The weekly hour’s users consume, went up from 8.7 to 11.2. It is important to clarify that, although users dedicate more time to online platforms, this does not affect the consumption of linear TV hours, because one same content belonging to a pay-TV provider who was previously only watching on linear TV, can currently be consumed on other windows,” points out the BB report.

This behavior shows that OTTs have become a complement for pay-TV, which is starting to adopt the hybrid model of window aggregation. Both services coexist, while the adoption of OTT grows. Just this year, three more were launched in the region (Pluto TV, HBO Max, and Peacock), which will start a competition for subscribers with existing platforms.

Most homes in Colombia are connected, 62% have pay-TV and/or OTTs. 28% has pay-TV & OTT, 22% just pay-TV, 12% only OTT. The growth of homes that have both services is a trend in the region.

“It is no news that many pay-TV operators are adding online platforms to their commercial proposal, adding verticals to their offer, but maintaining the basic service. The figure of the content super aggregator will revitalize pay-TV and telcos in Latin America that manage to consolidate the right agreements to be carriers and distributors of the contents of these large OTTs. This will happen as a billing-integration alternative or simply by listing their contents on a unified platform,” points out Tomás Gennari, CEO of BB.