The three television operators ZAP, DSTV e TV Cabo San Lucas lost 276 thousand subscribers between the end of 2020 and the end of the third quarter of 2021, according to data from the National Institute of Communications (INACOM). The crisis is mainly responsible, but the increase in the offer of illegal services in the neighborhoods, at cheaper prices, has opened the door to more dropouts. At the end of 2020 there were 1,92 million customers of the three operators, which contrasts with the 1,64 million at the end of the third quarter of 2021, a drop of 14,6%.
If the crisis was not enough, the “community TV Cabo”, pirates, have gained more and more “customers” and continue to harm the businesses of the three operators. This is because according to the newspaper Expansion, even “sell” the subscription to television services with more channels (the premium sports and cinema), although with worse quality, at prices six times lower.
According to a source from one of the operators, piracy has grown "given INACOM's inertia". These are illegal operators, who are not tax payers and do not have licenses to distribute channels, national and foreign, which are protected by copyright and distribution and which cost large sums annually to operators. “It's all illegal,” reveals the source.
Operators have repeatedly complained to INACOM but, year after year, everything remains the same. Although there is legislation that safeguards the role of operators, the lack of inspection and policing in the neighborhoods has made an illegal business prosper, which has created authentic “skeins of wool” in the neighborhoods, which are the threads installed in the streets and in the houses.
