Multi-play Services Drive Global Pay-TV Service Revenue to $53 Billion in 1Q 2011

SINGAPORE — The worldwide pay-TV industry continues to grow in terms of both subscriber numbers and service revenue. “At the end of first quarter of 2011, pay-TV service revenue generated from satellite, cable, terrestrial and telco TV totaled $53 billion. That is a 10% increase from the first quarter of 2010,” says Jason Blackwell, digital home practice director at ABI Research.

Increasing penetration of multi-play services drives the growth in the subscriber base. Bundled services are more cost-effective for customers than subscribing to each service separately. Many of the operators have witnessed how triple-play services reduce churn and increase ARPU.

Average revenue per user (ARPU) for different pay-TV platforms continues to grow. Analog switch-off progress across the world drives increase in the number of customers receiving digital TV services and HD TV services. “Digital TV and HD TV services raise monthly ARPU, generating incremental revenue and profit for the pay-TV operators,” notes research analyst Khin Sandi Lynn. “ABI Research expects that worldwide pay-TV service revenue will total $218 billion by the end of 2011.”

Regionally, North America and Western Europe own the highest market shares of pay-TV service revenue. This is mainly due to high average revenue per user in these regions. At this moment, the Asia Pacific region owns the third largest market share of global pay-TV service revenue. However, Asia Pacific is likely to have larger market share than Western Europe in next two years. This will be driven by the cable TV sector, especially in countries such as China and India, where there is a high number of cable TV subscribers and potential for increasing ARPU due to the digital conversion progress.

ABI Research has recently completed a quarterly update of its “Pay-TV ARPU and Revenues Market Data” which provides historical and forecast data for ARPU, and service revenue forecasts for satellite, cable and telco TV.

The study is a part of the company’s TV and Video Research Service which also includes Research Reports, ABI Insights, Surveys, ABI Vendor Matrices, and analyst inquiry support.