The worldwide pay TV market continues to grow in Q1 2014. According to ABI Research’s Market Data, the total pay TV subscriber base is expected to surpass 936.4 million at the end of 2014, generating $280.4 billion in service revenue.
Although the global cable TV market grew in 2013, the North American cable TV market lost around 4% subscriber base in 2013. High subscription cost and other pay TV alternatives are blamed for the declining subscriber base; however, cable TV operators experienced slower subscriber loss rate in the past two quarters. In Q1 2014, subscriber net loss of major cable operators in the United States was around 7k compared to over 200k subscriber loss in 4Q 2013.
“Innovative services such as Comcast’s cloud based X1 system which allows customers to store and watch TV shows on different devices has helped to reduce churn,” commented Jake Saunders, VP and practice director of core forecasting. “The North American pay TV subscriber base is expected to reach 113.2 million in 2014.”
The high-definition TV subscriber base continued to grow in Q1 2014. ABI Research expects 45% of the total pay TV subscriber base will be high-definition subscribers at the end of 2014.
ABI Research anticipates that the worldwide pay TV subscriber base will reach 1.1 billion subscribers in 2019. “Emerging markets such as Asia-Pacific and Latin America will have a higher growth rate than mature markets in the years to come. The global pay TV market is expected to generate $331 billion in 2019,” said Khin Sandi Lynn, industry analyst.
This story also appears on IBC’s Content Everywhere.
