Emerging Markets to Lead IPTV Subscription Growth Through 2018

BOSTON: Global IPTV subscriptions are expected to reach 102 million in 2018, with the fastest growth coming from Latin America and Africa and the Middle East, according to a new report from Pyramid Research.

Between 2013 and 2018, the firm forecasts that global IPTV revenue will increase at an 11.8-percent CAGR, reaching $42.9 billion.

The three largest IPTV markets—China, France and the U.S.—will each have more than 12 million subscriptions at year-end 2013 and together will account for over half of the world’s IPTV subscriber base. Western Europe and North America have the highest penetration rates, at 16 percent and 10.6 percent, respectively. The lowest penetration rates are seen in Latin America (0.57 percent) and Africa and the Middle East (0.55 percent). Household penetration levels are expected to increase across all regions, averaging 9.1 percent of households at the end of 2018.

On a global basis, IPTV will account for 10.6 percent of all pay-TV subscriptions by year-end 2013. Over the next five years, this number will grow by 5 percentage points to reach 15.7 percent at year-end 2018. All regions, except North America and Central and Eastern Europe, will see the proportion of IPTV subscriptions over total pay-TV subscriptions increase by more than 4 percentage points in the 2013-18 period. Looking at the Latin American region, where traditional cable and satellite pay-TV services predominate, and despite low broadband household penetration and regulatory restrictions in Mexico and Argentina, the percentage of pay-TV accounts using IPTV will increase from 1.4 percent in 2013 to 7 percent in 2018, as the number of broadband accounts using fiber-to-the-home networks grows.