Advanced Television

Global pay-TV subs to top 1.1bn

January 23, 2014

ABI Research’s latest Pay TV ARPU and Revenues Market Data report has found that worldwide pay-TV market reached 903.3 million subscribers in 2013, generating $249.8 billion in service revenue. IPTV operators enjoyed significant growth (18.5 per cent YoY) in 2013 to 92 million subscribers with a total of $37.2 billion in service revenue.

“Increasing FTTH subscriber base and bundled subscriber base of telcos are boosting the IPTV market. ABI Research forecasts that the IPTV subscriber base will grow to 161 million subscribers in 2019 accounting for 15 per cent of overall pay-TV market,” commented Jake Saunders, VP and practice director of core forecasting.

The cable TV market grew at the slowest rate among different pay-TV platforms with only 3 per cent YoY growth, ending 2013 with 570.2 million subscribers. Cable TV subscribers in Western Europe and North America declined around 1 per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively in 2013. However, cable TV markets in Asia-Pacific and Latin America continued to contribute to global cable TV market growth, which is expected to reach a total of 634.5 million subscribers in 2019.

The global terrestrial TV market reached 9.5 million subscribers at the end of 2013. A declining pay DTT subscriber base in Italy and Spain had an impact on the overall Western European DTT market which dropped around 5 per cent in 2013.Unlike Western Europe, the DTT market in Africa grew a remarkable 45 per cent to 2.1 million subscribers in 2013. “As African countries start to switch over to digital, digital terrestrial TV has become an affordable alternative to satellite TV service in the region. ABI Research forecasts that Africa will have over 4.8 million DTT subscribers in 2019,” added Khin Sandi Lynn, industry analyst.

DirecTV maintains its largest market share in terms of pay-TV service revenue. The company had around 20.2 million subscribers in the US with an ARPU above $102 by the end of 3Q-2013. Globally, the pay-TV market is expected to grow to 1.1 billion subscribers, with $320.3 billion in service revenue in 2019.

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