The worldwide pay-TV market is expected to have grown 5% in 2014, surpassing 924.4 million subscribers, according to ABI Research.
“IPTV is expected to have grown by 14% in 2014, followed by satellite TV platform at 7%,” said Jake Saunders, vice president and practice director of core forecasting at ABI Research. “The growth rates of cable and terrestrial TV platforms are expected to slow to around 3%.”
The research firm said the global cable TV market growth is driven by the Asia-Pacific and Latin American markets. A combination of the two regions is likely to have added over 13 million subscribers in 2014.
Video streaming services such as Netflix and TiVo, which cost less than $10 in monthly fees, are attractive alternatives for pay-TV customers. Traditional pay-TV operators are now trying to compete with these services by developing their own video-streaming products or by integrating these services in their existing services.
Bundled packages help pay-TV operators to reduce churn. In addition, HD channels, advanced PVR (personal video recorder) services and premium content such as sports content contribute to higher ARPU (average revenue per user).
ABI Research forecasts that 57% of total pay-TV subscribers will be HD subscribers by 2019. By then, the global pay-TV market will generate $324 billion in service revenues.