Global Pay-TV Revenues Delivered $184 Billion in 2012

LONDON: The number of pay-TV households reached 772 million in 2012, according to Digital TV Research, which reports that pay-TV revenues were $184 billion for the year.

The 772 million pay-TV households, comprised of both analogue and digital, is up from the 585 million reported in 2008. The Asia Pacific added 126 million households during this period, or two-thirds of the global additions, bringing its total to 433 million. North America was the second-largest region, adding 4 million to reach 112 million.

Pay-TV revenues for the year, at $184 billion, were up by 28.5 percent from the $143 billion reported in 2008. Cable brought in the highest revenues, with $87 billion. But cable revenues are leveling off, with DTH poised to overtake the platform soon. IPTV revenues were $12 billion, up sharply from the $2.8 billion in 2008. North America generates about half of the world’s total pay-TV revenues.

Globally, about 404 million digital homes were added in the 2008-2012 period measured in Digital TV Research’s new report. This takes the digital TV household total to 786 million (for the 97 countries covered in the report). Digital TV penetration grew from 28.6 percent in 2008 to 54.7 percent by the end of 2012.

Digital cable was in 273 million homes, pay digital DTH was in 178 million and free-to-air digital DTH was in 118 million. Pay IPTV delivered another 69 million households. Primary free-to-air DTT homes reached 138 million, with pay DTT at 9 million.

Between 2008 and 2012, 100 million TV households were added to the pie, bringing the total to 1.439 billion. Of this, 69 million came from the Asia-Pacific region. Of the 404 million digital TV households added in that period, 229 million were in the Asia Pacific, which now stands at 342 million. China, the largest digital TV household nation, had 187 million digital TV homes at the end of 2012, accounting for 24 percent of the world’s total.