Haiti - Trade Promotion and AdvertisingHaiti - Trade Promotion

While there is a growing number of advertising professionals and commercial producers in Haiti, the media reports that advertising revenue declined in 2018. Billboards and TV commercials are popular advertising venues, and marketing companies typically use commercial flyers to target the higher social strata. In Port-au-Prince, billboard fees can cost thousands of dollars. In the outlying municipalities, advertisers pay billboard fees to the mayor’s office of the municipality where the billboards are displayed. As most Haitians acquire information via radio, radio still dominates the advertising sector. There are about 200 legal commercial, religious, and independent radio stations in Haiti, out of which 53 AM/FM are located in Port-au-Prince per CONATEL/HPN.  Most radio stations broadcast 17 to 19 hours a day. There are approximately 106 television stations operating in Haiti. There are 32 TV stations in Port-au-Prince, 30 others in the provinces and more than 40 radio-television stations. Advertising is regularly viewed in the daily newspapers, such as “Le Nouvelliste,” and “Le National” or through local Haitian TV channels. Television-based advertisements have been increasing over the years, but this occurs primarily in Haiti’s larger cities. Cable TV subscriptions are available through three cable providers: Tele Haiti, NuTV, and Canal+. To cater to a wider audience, cable providers also offer up to 200 foreign (Latin American, European, and Caribbean) and American channels such as CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX, HBO, and CNN. However, some remote areas in the countryside still lack access to cable TV. The lack of any rating system makes actual audience reach by radio or broadcast television hard to assess. Cell phone penetration in Haiti remains high with the ITU estimating over 59.07 percent penetration rates in 2018. Digicel maintains the largest market share in the tightly owned and operated SMS advertising sector.

Number of radio stations and cable providers per department, per CONATEL and cable companies: