2016 has become a year of over-the-top (OTT) explosion in Latin America, with Millicom’s Tigo being the latest, but probably not the last, to join the party.
Formerly a Netflix stronghold, Latin America has recently seen the arrival of Televisa’s blim and the rocketing expansion of Telefónica’s Movistar Play. Now, Millicom’s telco has started the deployment of Tigo Play, its own video-on-demand (VOD) service.
blim, Televisa’s video-on-demand (VOD) and streaming service, is, for the moment, carrying an aggressive content strategy, aiming to take the crown from Netflix not only in Mexico, but across the entire region.
Meanwhile, Telefónica is deploying more silent moves, but Movistar Play has launched in Uruguay, Costa Rica, Guatemala and El Salvador since the beginning of the year, and will arrive in Panama, Peru, Ecuador and Nicaragua before the end of the year.
Tigo Play has been the latest to join the boom, but it intends to fight for a place in the regional OTT market. The VOD platform launched this week in Guatemala and will gradually arrive in other markets in which Millicom’s company operates.
According to local newspapers, the platform will first land in Costa Rica - Tigo’s largest business - but will then arrive in other emerging markets such as Bolivia, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, and more established ones like Colombia and Paraguay.
With these last moves, OTT video platforms seem finally to be taking off in LATAM, although for different reasons. While Televisa sees an opportunity for wider content distribution, telcos as Telefónica and Tigo focus on OTT platforms as a driver of demand for their mobile and fixed services.
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