(25 October 2012 2:10 pm) 

MUMBAI: The worldwide pay-TV market is growing on all major TV platforms worldwide, including cable, satellite, and IPTV. Pay-TV service revenue is expected to reach $236 billion by the end of 2012, up from $223 billion in 2011, according to ABI Research’s pay-TV Market Data, which looks at average revenue per user (Arpu) and revenues worldwide.

ABI Research expects the pay-TV market to continue to grow 19 per cent over the next five years, generating $281 billion in 2017. Pay terrestrial TV services, however, are losing steam with a small drop in revenue; the French pay-TV platform TV Numeric is in receivership and likely to close at the end of the year.

DirecTV experienced Arpu growth in the United States as a result of higher penetration in premium packages; it saw significant subscriber and revenue growth in Latin America, although Arpu fell slightly as more customers chose less expensive packages.

Cable-TV maintains the largest share of the market through 2017, although it is losing market share to both satellite and IPTV. North American cable operators have experienced drops in their subscriber base over the past few quarters.

Growth in satellite and IPTV services in North America comes at the expense of cable. This competitive shift, coupled with a small drop in pay-tv penetration, lead cable-TV revenues to fall about one per cent in 2012 despite a small increase in ARPU.Global Cable-TV service revenue market-share is expected to drop to 47 per cent in 2012 from 48 per cent in 2011.

DirecTV tops ABI Research’s global satellite TV market share ranking, both in terms of subscriber base and service revenue at the end of 2Q-2012.