Emerging markets driving growth in pay-TV market

CAMPBELL, California — Market research firm Infonetics Research released excerpts from its 1st edition Pay TV Subscriber Database by Provider, which tracks the cable TV, satellite TV, and telco IPTV subscribers of over 150 service providers around the world.

ANALYST NOTE

“What’s driving growth in pay-television are the emerging markets of Latin America, China, and India. India and Latin America are adding satellite and cable subscribers, while China is seeing an increase in IPTV subscribers,” reports Jeff Heynen, principal analyst for broadband access and pay TV at Infonetics Research.

Heynen continues: “Latin America’s economy, in particular, is performing well, with companies investing in Brazil ahead of the FIFA World Cup and consumers signing up for pay-TV services to the tune of 9% growth in the third quarter of 2013 from the year-ago period.”

SELECT PAY-TV SUBSCRIBER DATABASE HIGHLIGHTS

• The top 5 satellite providers by subscribers are, in rank order, DIRECTV US, DISH Network, DIRECTV Latin America, Tata Sky, and British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB)
• DIRECTV Latin America saw a 15% increase year-over-year (3Q13 over 3Q12) in satellite subscribers
• Topping the leaderboard for IPTV subscribers in 3Q13 are, in alphabetical order, AT&T, China Telecom, Iliad Group, Orange, and Verizon
• Comcast, the world’s leading provider of cable TV services, lost 355,000 subscribers over four quarters, with 21.6 million subscribers as of 3Q13
• The decline in cable subscribers across all operators is attributable more to churn than cord cutting as consumers defect to IPTV and satellite, often to take advantage of promotional offers

REPORT SYNOPSIS

Infonetics’ quarterly pay TV subscriber database tracks the digital and analog cable pay TV, satellite pay TV, and telco IPTV subscribers of more than 150 providers around the world, showing which operators are growing their subscriber bases and which aren’t.

The database, which includes searchable and sortable pivot tables, data, and charts, provides operator demographics; subscribers per operator per quarter from 2004 to now; and sub-region and country-level data where available. It also includes a Set-Top Box Deployment Tracker that shows set-top boxes being used to deliver pay TV services by operator, vendor, and model number. Also included is a Conditional Access Vendor Tracker, which lists conditional access vendors and the service providers and broadcasters to which they are providing conditional access systems.