The business model based on "triple play" (internet, television, and telephony) is facing a relevance crisis in Mexico. Totalplay, the telecommunications company of Grupo Salinas, has reported a 2% drop in its total revenue during the second quarter of 2026, highlighting that the consolidation of streaming platforms is forcing a forced reconfiguration of the residential offer.
The clearest sign of pressure on the business is the drop in Average Revenue per User (ARPU), which fell by 4.4%, from 607 to 580 pesos compared to the previous year. According to the company led by Eduardo Kuri, this phenomenon is directly attributed to a greater proportion of subscribers opting for double play packages (only internet and telephony or television), discarding the pay television service that traditionally elevated the bill value.
This trend is not isolated; the consultancy Select already reported saturation by the end of 2025, with a 0.4% decline in the triple play market. The migration is structural: users perceive less and less value in pay television as content —especially sports— moves to video on demand platforms.
Fixed Internet: The Only Critical Asset
For analysts, fixed telephony has ceased to be a determining factor due to mobile massification, and pay television has lost its status as a value-added service capable of justifying complex installations. As Jesús Romo, an analyst at GlobalData, points out: "Fixed internet is the most important service because it enables other use cases", leaving the sector waiting for structural or tariff improvements to compensate for the loss of value of complementary services.
The Paradox of Operating Costs
Despite the drop in revenue, the shift in the subscriber mix generated an unexpected benefit for the operating profitability of Totalplay. The lower signing of television services reduced spending on content acquisition, helping to contain operating costs in the face of rising maintenance and support expenses. However, this relief is temporary and does not resolve the underlying challenge: finding a new business model that replaces the lost profitability of triple play.
From the editorial perspective of next+, the case of Totalplay confirms that traditional bundling is no longer an effective exit barrier for the customer. What we observe is a transition towards pure connectivity, where the operator ceases to be a content curator to become strictly an access enabler. For sector executives, survival will depend on the ability to monetize additional digital services that truly add value in a streaming-dominated economy.