Global pay-TV market to generate US$280.4 billion this year

Jake Saunders

The global pay-TV market will generate US$280.4 billion (€207.3 billion) in service revenue in 2014, from a total subscriber base that is tipped to pass 936.4 million at the end of the year.

According to the new figures from ABI Research, some 45% of worldwide pay-TV subscribers are expected to be high-definition customers at the end of 2014, with the World Cup expected to contribute to higher pay-TV service revenue in 2014.

ABI said that the major US cable operators in the US suffered a net subscriber loss of roughly 7,000 in Q1 2014, compared to a more than 200,000 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. The North American pay-TV subscriber base is expected to reach 113.2 million in 2014,” said Jake Saunders, ABI’s vice president and practice director of core forecasting.

ABI industry analyst Khin Sandi Lynn added: “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.”

Overall, the research firm predicted that global pay-TV subscriber numbers will reach 1.1 billion in 2019.