Growth in pay TV subscribers expected at 8 percent this year

May 6, 2009

Pay TV subscribers are expected to grow by 8 percent in 2009 to reach nearly 733 million globally, according to the first quarter update of the Media Forecast from Pyramid Research.

Pyramid Research's tracking of the pay TV markets for 52 countries shows the year-over-year growth rate declining to 8 percent from 11 percent in 2008. Ozgur Aytar, research manager at Pyramid Research, said the negative GDP rates are affecting the market.

Aytar said the stabilizing effect of multiplay bundles, such as Comcast triple play or Verizon triple play, and their increasing penetration in mature pay TV markets should prevent the global subscriber base from dropping.

"We started the year with a great sense of uncertainty of the impact of the economic downturn on the pay-TV market, [but] pay TV operators' first-quarter results published to date have not been so bad after all," Aytar said.

Most broadband operators and cable TV operators continue to add subscribers and those that are losing customers are doing so largely as a result of the entry of new competitors, added Aytar.

Cable TV operators are expected to generate more than half of the global pay TV revenue in 2009.

The prospects for IPTV platforms appear to be most promising across the Western European markets, where IPTV subscribers are projected to account for 15 percent of total pay TV base by year-end, Pyramid Research reported.

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