One in four homes to receive satellite TV by 2018

By 2018 almost 400 million homes will receive TV signals via satellite, up by almost 100 million compared to the end of 2012, representing a quarter of global TV households.

According to the new Digital TV Research stats, the number of pay satellite TV (DBS or DTH) homes will reach 251 million by 2018, up from 178 million at end-2012 and 103 million at the end of 2008.

Free-to-air DTH households will also rise, reaching 142.6 million households in 2018, compared to 118 million in 2012.

Combined this will result in some 393.8 million homes receiving satellite TV in 2018 out of a total 1.58 billion TV households, according to the study, which looked at 97 countries.

“From the 73 million pay satellite TV subscribers added between 2012 and 2018, India will provide 24.4 million, Brazil 9.2 million, Indonesia 6.8 million and Russia 5.9 million. However, the Global Satellite TV Forecasts report estimates that pay satellite TV subscriber totals will fall in 11 countries between 2012 and 2013 as subs convert to other platforms,” said Digital TV Research.

In 2018 the top four pay satellite TV countries by subscribers will be India with 61.1 million subscribers, USA with 36.6 million, Brazil with 19 million and Russia with 16.7 million.

The US will remain DTH market leader by revenues generated, although its share of the total will fall from 43.5% in 2012 to 38.7% in 2018.

Brazil will add the most DTH revenues between 2012 and 2018, the research said, though satellite TV revenues will decline in 20 countries between 2012 and 2018, thanks mainly to greater competition, forcing satellite TV platforms to offer cheaper packages.