Advanced Television

Pay TV

56% of pay-TV viewers want carousel UI

When too many channels are combined with the inability to find something to watch, a better experience is needed. A white paper released by Digitalsmiths, entitled The War Between OTT and Pay-TV, discusses how and why OTT experiences are more enticing than Pay-TV experiences. Because many OTT streaming services are largely carousel-driven, Digitalsmiths added a […]

March 17, 2016

US pay-TV subs ‘$40 for à la carte ideal’

Digitalsmiths’ Q4 2015 Pay-TV and Online Video Trends report shows that 73.6 per cent of respondents in the US would like to choose only the channels they want to watch. While skinny bundles are the new trend in TV packages, the amount of respondents who would like an à la carte channel option decreased for […]

March 17, 2016

North America to lose fewer pay-TV subs

The number of pay-TV subs in North America [Canada and the US] will fall from 112 million in the peak year of 2012 to 106 million in 2021, according to the fifth edition of the Digital TV North America Forecasts report. According to Simon Murray, Principal Analyst at Digital TV Research, at first glance, this […]

March 16, 2016

Bank: Netflix will disrupt Singapore pay-TV

Incumbent telco operators StarHub and Singtel may see a drop in pay-TV subscribers as Netflix officially begins its services in Singapore, according to a report by OCBC Bank. OCBC noted that the market appears to be reaching its saturation point, with Singtel only managing to add 1,000 new subscribers in Q4 and StarHub losing 6,000 […]

March 16, 2016

Neil: ‘Sky Q to kick-start UHD market’

Media commentator Andrew Neil has predicted that Sky’s new premium-level pay-TV offering Sky Q will be the development that kick starts the market for Ultra HD TV. Delivering a ‘State of the Industry’ keynote address at the SES Satellite Monitor event in London, Neil, the launch Chairman of the original Sky DTH service in the […]

March 15, 2016By Colin Mann

US multichannel market loses 1m+ subs in 2015

According to findings from media financial intelligence specialist SNL Kagan, the downward trajectory of the US multichannel segment continued in the fourth quarter of 2015 despite a resurgence in cable subscriptions and solid direct-broadcast satellite (DBS) results, suggesting a share shift rather than a retreat from cord cutting. SNL Kagan estimates the combined cable, DBS […]

March 15, 2016

Italian police bust pay-TV piracy ring

Italy’s Financial Police has exposed a fraud of pay-TV operators Sky Italia and Mediaset Premium, leading to charges being raised against 240 people. The investigation targeted an inhabitant of the city of La Spezia in possession of a sophisticated software system and connected hardware equipment, capable of illegally receiving and retransmitting the encrypted signal of […]

March 15, 2016By Branislav Pekic in Rome

Israel restricts pay-TV pricing

Israel’s TV regulator (the Council for Cable TV and Satellite Broadcasting) is limiting the amount that Hot Telecom or DBS Satellite Services (the ‘YES’ DTH operation) can charge for pay-TV, and is demanding much greater transparency in the subscription prices on offer. The regulator has just wrapped a detailed study of the pay-TV market in […]

March 15, 2016By Chris Forrester

SNL Kagan: Eastern Europe pay-TV M&A report

Over the last two years, Eastern Europe remained an active pay-TV market from an M&A perspective, with high fragmentation in the cable sector leading to ongoing consolidation, reports SNL Kagan in an analysis of the sector. Another supporting factor is high pay-TV penetration, which limits greenfield growth opportunities in cable, while intense competition among multiple […]

March 14, 2016

US pay-TV down 385K subs in 2015

Findings from Leichtman Research Group (LRG) suggest that the thirteen largest pay-TV providers in the US – representing about 95 per cent of the market – lost about 385,000 net video subscribers in 2015, compared to a loss of about 150,000 subscribers in 2014, and a loss of about 100,000 subscribers in 2013. The top […]

March 11, 2016