IPTV Thrives Despite Slip in U.S. Pay-TV Market

EL SEGUNDO: IPTV was the only segment of the U.S. pay-TV market to see growth in the second quarter, according to IHS, as subscriptions are down for cable and satellite providers.

In the U.S., IPTV providers—among them AT&T Uverse and Verizon FiOS—achieved a net addition of 398,000 during Q2, up from the 304,000 in the year-ago period. During that same time span, the U.S. pay-TV market as a whole lost 352,000 subs.

Notably, the cable segment lost 588,000 subscribers. This is, however, an improvement from the 598,000 subs lost during the same time last year. Satellite’s decline was 162,000 subscribers, up from the 62,000 a year ago.

Given the number of total subscribers for the period from April to June, cable still has 55 percent of the U.S. pay-TV market. Satellite has 34 percent and IPTV has an upwardly mobile share of 11 percent.

“Of the three segments in the U.S. pay-TV market, the IPTV sector is enjoying growth, especially in urban areas where it is luring subscribers away from satellite,” said Erik Brannon, analyst for U.S. television at IHS. “In particular, satellite’s lack of a true high-speed Internet service or a triple-play bundling option puts it at a disadvantage when competing against IPTV and cable. Cable, meanwhile, has its own problems, including disagreements between operators and content providers over rising programming costs that squeeze customers in the middle.”