Global Pay TV Subscribers Increase 6% in 2010 over 2009

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — As a result of the global economy over the last few years pay TV subscriber numbers had been negatively impacted. However, things seem to be improving as the total number of pay TV subscribers by year-end 2010 were greater than year-end 2009 by a little over 6%, says In-Stat.

“Nearly every region showed gains or held their own in 2010,” according to Stephanie Pickering, Industry Analyst. “However, cable providers were impacted, to at least some degree, by a migration to satellite and/or IPTV in virtually every region.”

Recent research data shows:

• China has the largest number of pay TV subscribers with over 160 million.
• The largest regional market of IPTV subscribers is Western Europe with nearly 17.5 million subscribers, of which France has over 10 million, led by Free and Orange.
• Net Serviços de Comunicação of Brazil is the largest cable operator in the Caribbean and Latin America region.
• AT&T went from the sixth largest Telco TV operator in the world at the end of 2009 to the fourth largest in 2010.
• Total global pay TV subscribers will approach 1.4 billion by 2014.

The top ten global operators for 2009 and 2010 were:

Total Subscribers End of Year 2009
Comcast                                     23,559,000
DirecTV                                     18,560,000
Dish Network                                14,100,000
Time Warner Cable                           12,859,000
BSkyB                                        9,708,000
UPC Broadband (Liberty Global)               8,996,400
Kabel Deutschland (KDG)                      8,788,400
Dish TV                                      6,463,000
Wire & Wireless India / WWIL (Essel Group)   6,350,000
Tricolor and NTV+ (Gazprom-Media)            6,200,000

Total Subscribers End of Year 2010
Comcast                                     22,802,000
DirecTV                                     19,597,000
Dish Network                                14,133,000
Time Warner Cable                           12,257,000
Kabel Deutschland (KDG)                     10,153,000
BSkyB                                       10,096,000
UPC Broadband (Liberty Global)               8,852,000
Dish TV                                      8,263,000
Tricolor and NTV+ (Gazprom-Media)            8,200,000
Tata Sky                                     6,400,000

Source: In-Stat 4/11

Recent In-Stat research, 4Q10 pay TV Subscribers Database (#IN1104985PTSD), provides actual subscriber numbers for the top 60 cable (analog and digital), top 75 satellite (DTH), and top 70 IPTV (or telco TV) pay TV operators worldwide. The data is segmented by:

• 2010-2014 worldwide subscriber forecasts by household, region, and platform
• 2008-Q410 worldwide actual subscribers by household, region, operator and platform
• Top 20 pay TV operators by platform, region and country

This research is part of In-Stat’s Pay TV Subscriber Database which tracks pay TV subscribers segmented by operator type, operator, and country/region and includes five-year forecasts with quarterly updates.