ABI Research: Global Pay-TV Market to Generate $269 Billion

SINGAPORE: The worldwide pay-TV market is expected to generate more than $269 billion by the end of the year, according to ABI Research, with ARPU improved by HD and sporting events.

The global base is forecast to surpass 920 million subscribers by the end of 2014. The average revenue per user (ARPU) is set to drop slightly, due to increasing price competition, but at a lower rate than ARPU dropped in 2013.

Jake Saunders, VP and practice director of core forecasting at ABI, said, “The growing number of HD subscribers as well as major sporting events such as the World Cup 2014 have contributed to improving ARPU. As a result, the total pay-TV market is expected to generate over $269 billion by the end of 2014.”

Latin America is seeing strong pay-TV gains as of late. DIRECTV added 543,000 subscribers in Q2 2014 in Latin America. This was a sharp increase compared to subscriber net additions of 165,000 in the same quarter the previous year. ARPU in local currency has increased 8 percent from 2013. Subscriber growth in Latin America was led primarily by the World Cup 2014 matches (though DIRECTV did not benefit from the event).

“ABI Research anticipates that the worldwide pay-TV subscriber base will grow to nearly 1.1 billion subscribers generating $323 billion by 2019,” added Khin Sandi Lynn, industry analyst.

The IPTV market share grew more than 1 percentage point in Q2 2014, compared to the same period the prior year. Competition in the global pay-TV market is growing, with the rapid evolution of IPTV and online services. Multiscreen services are helping pay-TV operators to reduce churn and boost revenue.