IPTV & OTT to Account for Majority of Pay-TV Growth in Western Europe

LONDON: According to the latest pay-TV forecasts from Analysys Mason, the take-up for OTT is pacing ahead of traditional pay-TV services in Western Europe.

The analyst forecasts that the number of households taking pay-TV services in Western Europe will increase by 9.2 million to 113.3 million, an 8.9-percent growth, between 2013 and 2018. OTT video services will grow much more strongly than traditional pay-TV services, but cord-cutting will not be extreme. OTT video to the TV set is expected to account for 5.6 million primary pay-TV services by 2018. The largest impact will be on secondary TV sets, as traditional operators could broaden their reach with their own OTT services to these sets.

The number of Western European households taking up pay-TV services with IPTV, DTT or satellite is expected to increase by 4.1 million to 107.7 million, a growth of 3.9 percent in the next five years.