OTT services in Brazil

Each year, an increasing number of Brazilian consumers subscribe to digital content distribution services. In this article we will list the largest OTT services in Brazil.

Consumption of OTT Content in Brazil

The market for Over-The-Top content distribution services in Latin America is expected to expand by over 290% between 2014 and 2018, according to research by market intelligence provider Dataxis. The rapid growth of these platforms should be driven by markets such as Brazil, where OTT services launched during the last few years have seen wide adoption and high engagement by the country’s public.

To put this in numbers, Netflix gathered close to 1.2 million users in Brazil during the first two years following its arrival in the country. As of Q3 2014, the service remains the leader for the OTT segment in Latin America, with close to 5 million subscribers in the region, according to market intelligence provider Emarketer.

Overall, as of recent years Brazilians are displaying a much higher engagement with online-delivered content in general. In 2013, the registered peak hours for internet traffic in the country shifted from afternoons to evenings, a sign of the increasing interest in consumption of online entertainment content.

As OTT services have expanded in Brazil, paid TV subscription has displayed a decrease in adoption, according to recent statistics. Data from Anatel, or the Brazilian Telecommunications Agency, reveals that between December 2014 and March 2015 paid TV subscribers in the country increased 0.9%. Meanwhile, a survey by technology services and consulting company Accenture published in May 2015 discovered that 48% of Brazilians were interested in accessing multiple types of content from their TV sets.

Though still far from the cord-cutting phenomenon found in countries like the United States, the expansion of broadband connections in Brazil should foster the adoption of OTT services as one of the main mediums for the consumption of entertainment content in the near future.

OTT and VOD Services in Brazil

Some of the leading players in the OTT sector globally have arrived in Brazil, while others, such as Hulu and Amazon Instant Video have not yet expanded to the country.

Netflix

Streaming giant Netflix arrived in Brazil in 2011 and has a current base of close to 2 million subscribers. The service is competitively priced, at BRL 17.90 per month, which is approximately USD 7.

Although the catalogue of movies and series provided in the country is more limited than what is offered in territories such as the United States, Netflix offers a substantial amount of locally-produced content, that ranges from comedy shows, movies and TV series to children’s music videos.

iTunes and Google Play

Apple’s content distribution platform iTunes arrived in Brazil in late 2011, while competing platform Google Play launched its video content store in the country during the year 2012. Both platforms offer movie rentals, with prices ranging from BRL 3 to BRL 7, and purchases, with prices that range from BRL 20 to BRL 50. Neither of these platforms offer TV shows in Brazil, as their video content is limited to licensed movies from national and international distributors.

Crunchy Roll

This video streaming service focused on Japanese anime and live action TV shows arrived in Brazil in 2012, offering a large number of series and the inclusion of live stream content shortly after its airing in Japan. The platform offers standard-definition, ad-monetized content free of charge and high-definition ad-free content for USD 5 per month.

Looke

Video platform Looke, owned by Brazilian bookstore franchise Saraiva, was recently launched in the country. The service offers the rental of movies and series episodes for prices close to BRL 7, purchases of movies and series for prices up to BRL 45 and access to their backlog for a monthly fee of BRL 14.90.

Crackle

Free of charge, ad-monetized video platform Crackle arrived in Brazil in 2012. The service currently offers a number of movies and TV shows with language options localized to the country, a number of which are only available through their platform.

Other OTT Services

Brazilian service NetMovies, which changed its business model over the last few years, currently offers streaming of movies for the monthly price of BRL 18.90. Other national OTT offerings include Esporte Interativo Plus, a video platform focused on the broadcast and streaming of sports-related content for the monthly price of BRL 14.90.

Services such as WWE Network have recently offered Brazilian consumers access to their content, even though their portals are not localized to the country’s public. Game networks from Sony and Microsoft have also launched video rental and streaming services to the Brazilian audience in recent years, even though no local content is provided on their platforms and language options are limited to Portuguese subtitles.

Video On Demand Offerings

A strategy adopted by some of the largest TV programmers in Brazil to compete with the growing OTT sector are TV Everywhere services, provided only to subscribers of their paid TV channel packages. This is the case for some of the most popular channels owned by programming giant Globosat and for international companies FOX and HBO.

Carriers such as Vivo, Claro, Net, GVT and Oi and paid TV operator Sky have also launched proprietary video on-demand platforms in an effort to maintain relevance in the segment of content streaming in the country and also capitalize on their investment in telecommunications infrastructure.