Pay TV homes to reach one billion by 2018

Global pay TV households are expected to reach almost one billion by 2018, up from 772 million in 2012, according to the latest report by Digital TV Research.

According to the Digital TV World Household Forecasts report, The Asia Pacific region will account for 59% of pay TV homes by 2018, with China expected to be the world leader with 313 million subscribers, followed by India with 158 million. Together with the third-placed US’s expected 107 million pay TV homes, the top three countries are expected to account for 58% of global pay TV households.

The other members of the pay TV top 10 in 2018 will be Russia, with 32.3 million subscribers, Brazil with 30.5 million, Japan with 27 million, Germany with 23.1 million, Mexico with 19 million, South Korea with 16.9 million and the UK with 16.3 million.

Digital TV Research estimates that global analogue and digital pay TV penetration reached 53.6% at the end of 2012 and this is expected to rise to 63.1% by 2018, ranging from 86% in North America to 29% in the Middle East and Africa.

The global pay TV penetration leader in 2018 is expected to be the Netherlands, with close to 100% penetration. The others in the top 10 will be Denmark, Belgium, Hong Kong, South Korea, Sweden, Norway, Puerto Rico, Singapore and Estonia.

Digital TV homes are expected to grow by 667 million between now and 2018 to reach 1.453 billion, with an additional 127 million households expected to migrate to digital this year. Global digital penetration is expected to rise from 54.7% at the end of 2012 to 92% by 2018.  Cable is expected to account for 513 million digital homes by that date, followed by 363 million primary digital-terrestrial , including 16 million pay TV homes, 167 million pay IPTV homes, 251 million pay DTH homes and 143 million free-to-air DTH homes.

The global TV household total is expected to rise by 141 million households to 1.58 billion between now and 2018.