Global Pay-TV Subs to Exceed 1.1 Billion by 2020

SINGAPORE: The worldwide pay-TV market grew at a steady rate of 4 percent last year, reaching 923.5 million subscribers, according to ABI Research, though weak currency exchange rates resulted in a slower increase of revenue for the segment.

Worldwide, the pay-TV market generated $257 billion in 2014 and is expected to surpass 1.1 billion subscribers in 2020 with a CAGR 2.7 percent. Cable and terrestrial TV markets had weaker growth rates in 2014 compared to satellite and IPTV platforms. However, HD penetration is increasing across all pay-TV platforms, due to the increasing number of HD channels added by operators. Last year, 44 percent of the worldwide pay-TV subscriber base were HD subscribers, with the highest HD penetration in Western Europe and North America. HD penetration is expected to reach 60 percent of the total pay-TV market in 2020.

ABI also finds that pay-TV operators are now moving toward 4K or Ultra HD service. In November, U.S. satellite operator DirecTV launched its first 4K programming without any additional monthly charges to subscribers with its HD DVR, Genie and DirecTV 4K Ready television set, which is any of Samsung’s Smart 4K TV models. Online video streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon also started to offer 4K content in late 2014. When content availability and 4K-TV-set adoption increase, 4K services are likely to become a differentiator for pay-TV service providers.

“As competition in the pay-TV market increases, quality of content, innovations and service pricing are among the important factors for pay-TV operators to maintain customer base. ABI Research forecasts that the global pay-TV market will generate $313 billion service revenues by 2020,” said Khin Sandi Lynn, industry analyst.