Skip to main content

Global Pay-TV Forecast to Reach $317.5 Billion in 2019

The traditional video entertainment industry in developed nations had a difficult period of transition last year, as retail sales of content on DVD and Blu-ray discs was either flat or declining, and pay-TV revenues were somewhat spotty. The days of huge gains appear to be over in many of the key saturated markets.

Regardless, some industry analysts remain hopeful for a market recovery.

The global pay-TV subscriber base increased by a little more than 5 percent in 2013, raising the total to 901.1 million. However the average revenue per user (ARPU) dropped to $23.80 in 2013 -- from $24.10 in 2012.

"In general, the pay-TV market grew both in terms of subscribers and service revenue across all pay-TV platforms. Overall pay-TV service revenue reached almost $250 billion in 2013," said Jake Saunders, vice president at ABI Research.

Pay-TV ARPU in North America increased around 4 percent to $76.00 in 2013. According to legacy pay-TV operators, the growth in ARPU is due to a growth in the proportion of customers with advanced pay-TV set-top boxes and upgraded High-Definition programming packages.

Unfavorable currency exchange rates in Latin American countries have contributed to a US Dollar equivalent decline in the pay-TV ARPU for the region at the end of 2013 to $34.6 (5 percent reduction from 2012).

Subscription of HD-TV services continue to grow in 2013 accounting for 41 percent of total pay-TV subscriber base in 2013. ABI forecasts that the subscriber base of HD-TV services will continue to increase to 57 percent of total pay-TV subscribers in 2019.

As competition in the pay-TV market has increased, operators continue to offer more HD programing services, advanced set-top boxes and innovative services in the hope of boosting pay-TV ARPU.

ABI anticipates that the worldwide pay-TV subscriber base will reach 1.1 billion subscribers in 2019. In particular, the increasing broadband connectivity will help the nascent IPTV market growth.

The IPTV market is likely to grow at a CAGR of 9 percent over the next five years to reach 160 million subscribers in 2019. The growth typically comes from short-term discount promotions -- where the telco gains the subscribers of the incumbent service provider. Few IPTV subscribers are actually new to pay-TV.

The global pay-TV market is expected to generate $317.5 billion in 2019, according to the current forecast by ABI Research. But this estimate likely assumes no further market disruption -- or erosion of subscriber base -- by the advancing movers and shakers in the low-cost over-the-top (OTT) video entertainment sector.

Popular posts from this blog

Decoding the Generative AI Global Surge

Commercial interest in Generative AI (GenAI) tools has reached a fever pitch, and the latest forecast from Gartner amplifies this emerging trend. Gartner predicts $644 billion in worldwide spending on GenAI in 2025, marking a dramatic 76.4 percent increase from the previous year. This surge underscores the impact GenAI will have across industries. It also requires a closer examination of the underlying dynamics of future potential. Generative AI Market Development This growth is fueled by the GenAI foundational model providers who invest billions into enhancing the size, performance, and reliability of their models.  Hardware also accounts for a significant portion of this spending, with ~80 percent allocated to servers, smartphones, and PCs equipped with artificial intelligence capabilities. This highlights the critical need for computational power to support the demanding workloads of GenAI. However, Gartner also injects a dose of reality into the GenAI hype cycle. There's a dec...