Global pay-TV subs continue to grow
May 30, 2013
A Multimedia Research Group report shows the worldwide pay-TV subscriber market has reached a new high water mark. Following a year of solid 8 per cent growth, there are now 804 million worldwide pay-TV subscriber households.
The global pay-TV subscriber base, which is made up of cable TV, satellite TV, and telco-based IPTV subscribers, is growing most rapidly in the Asia-Pacific region. Last year, over 38 million new households in Asia signed up for pay-TV service. Overall, on a worldwide basis two out of every three new pay-TV households in 2012 were in the Asia-Pacific region.
Meanwhile, the more mature pay-TV markets are hardly growing at all. In North America, pay-TV subscriber households stayed flat during 2012, ending the year pretty much where they began with 112 million subscriber households. There was a similar story in Western Europe, where total pay-TV subscriber households increased by just under 3 per cent last year.
Further highlights from the report include:
- 56 per cent of the world’s 1.43 billion TV households now subscribe to a pay-TV service.
- In terms of the specific pay-TV service platforms, IPTV subscriber households grew the most in 2012, rising by over 30 per cent. Total satellite TV households grew by just over 10 per cent last year.
- Cable TV subscribers still account for the largest segment of the pay-TV subscriber universe. At the end of 21012, 63 per cent of all global pay-TV subscriber households were cable TV households.