According to ABI Research, the global pay-TV market space garnered 903.3 million subscribers in 2013, generating $249.8 billion in service revenue.
The research firm states that the global fibre to the home (FTTH) and bundled services subscriber base of operators are the two key growth drivers for the IPTV market. ABI Research forecasts that IPTV subscriber base is expected to reach 161 million subscribers in 2019 accounting for 15 per cent of the overall pay-TV market.
Further, in 2013, the cable TV market witnessed a growth of 3 per cent with a total subscriber base of 570.2 million. The cable TV subscription markets in Western Europe and North America declined by 1 per cent and 1.5 per cent, respectively in 2013. However, the cable TV markets in Asia-Pacific and Latin America continued to contribute to global cable TV market growth, which is expected to reach a total of 634.5 million subscribers in 2019.
Further, the global terrestrial TV market reached 9.5 million subscribers at the end of 2013. A declining pay digital terrestrial television (DTT) subscriber base in Italy and Spain had an impact on the overall Western European DTT market which witnessed a decline of 5 per cent in 2013. Unlike Western Europe, the DTT market in Africa witnessed a growth of 45 per cent to reach 2.1 million subscribers in 2013. ABI Research points out that with African countries switching over to digital, digital terrestrial TV has become an affordable alternative to satellite TV service in the region. The research firm forecasts that Africa will have over 4.8 million DTT subscribers in 2019.
According to ABI Research, DirecTV continues to command largest market share in terms of pay-TV service revenue. Globally, the pay-TV market is expected to grow to 1.1 billion subscribers with $320.3 billion in service revenue in 2019.
