Global pay TV market grew by 4% last year

The global pay TV market grew at a steady rate of 4% last year, though there was a slower increase in revenues due to “weak currency exchange rates,” according to ABI Research. 

The new research claims that the worldwide pay TV market reached 923.5 million subscribers last year and is expected to exceed 1.1 billion subscribers in 2020 after climbing at a compound average growth rate of 2.7%.

Global pay TV revenues reached US$257 billion in 2014, with this figure expected to grow to US$313 billion service revenues by 2020, according to ABI.

The research claims that cable and terrestrial TV markets had weaker growth rates in 2014 compared to satellite and IPTV platforms. However, high definition penetration was found to be increasing across all pay TV platforms.

Last year, some 44% of the world pay TV subscriber base counted as HD subscribers, led by Western Europe and North America, with the total figure expected to reach 60% in 2020.

“Pay TV operators are now moving towards 4K or Ultra HD service,” said ABI citing DirecTV’s launch of 4K programming in November in the US.

“Online video streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon also started to offer 4K content in late 2014. When content availability and 4K TV set adoption increase, 4K services are likely to become a differentiator for pay TV service providers.”

ABI industry analyst Khin Sandi Lynn added: “As competition in the pay TV market increases, quality of content, innovations, and service pricing are among the important factors for pay TV operators to maintain customer base.”