According to ABI Research's 'Pay TV ARPU and Revenues' report, the worldwide Pay TV market is expected to surpass 920 million subscribers by the end of 2014. However, Pay TV average revenue per user (ARPU) is expected to drop slightly due to increasing price competition, but at a lower rate compared to the ARPU drop in 2013.
ABI projects the growth in the IPTV segment and online video channels to pose the biggest threat to the existing pay TV market, an example being the loss of over 200,000 subscribers incurred by the Japanese satellite TV operator, Sky Perfect. However, in the Latin American market, a different scenario was observed where the satellite TV operator DirecTV from US added 543,000 subscribers in the second quarter of this year in this market. This is very much he likely scenario in emerging markets where the high speed broadband penetration is still relatively low to benefit the IPTV service. Pay TV operators are devising new strategies to retain their market share admist competition from online content. In the case of SKY Perfect, the company has since developed multi-screen VOD services to reduce churn and boost service revenue.
Jake Saunders, VP and Practice Director of Core Forecasting
The growing number of HD subscribers as well as major sporting events such as the World Cup 2014 have contributed to improving ARPU. As a result, the total Pay TV market is expected to generate over $US269 billion by the end of 2014,” commented ABI Research anticipates that the worldwide Pay TV subscriber base will grow to nearly 1.1 billion subscribers generating $US323 billion by 2019,” added Khin Sandi Lynn, Industry Analyst.
