IPTV subscribers to overtake DTH in Western Europe

The number of paying IPTV subscribers in Western Europe will overtake pay satellite TV (pay DTH) subscribers by 2020, according to a new report by Digital TV Research.

The Digital TV Western Europe report claims that IPTV subscription numbers will climb by 38% between 2013 and 2020 to reach 27.01 million.

This compares to a projected 5% increase in pay DTH subscribers over the same time period, with the number of pay satellite homes expected to reach 26.42 million in 2020.

Digital cable subscribers are expected to climb 42% to 43.76 million homes in 2020, while pay DTT numbers will climb slightly to 6.46 million.

“Despite a return to more positive market conditions, pay TV subscriptions will only increase by 8.7 million (6.6%) between 2013 and 2020 to 103.65 million. However, the number of digital pay TV subscribers will increase by 28.1% (nearly 23 million), with analogue cable subs falling from 14.03 million to zero by 2019,” according to the report.

The overall number of digital TV households is expected to reach 159 million in Western Europe by the end of 2014, and grow to 174 million by 2020.

Free-to-air DTT is expected to remain the most popular platform with 43.89 million primary homes by 2020, with free-to-air satellite TV to supply a further 26.88 million.