The strength of the US dollar is likely to hurt pay-TV subscription growth this year, according to Brazil’s pay-TV Association (ABTA). Oscar Olivera, the president of ABTA, says that local economic weakness is also hurting growth.

Brazil suffered a slowing in demand numbers in January and Olivera said that local pay-TV providers Oi and Claro TV both expect a more challenging year. Claro TV reported a fall of 397,000 in December to a total of 3.38 million subscribers, although Claro is backing the growth of a pre-pay bundle option which eliminates the need for an annual contract.

Olivera says that this year’s growth will be less than the 9 per cent achieved last year, and the risk is that if unemployment rises then subscriptions will be affected.

The Brazilian pay-TV sector has enjoyed a 37 per cent growth over the past two years.

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