DESPITE A DECREASE in pay-TV subscribers in the U.S., the worldwide number of consumers opting for pay-TV content increased by 6% in 2010, according to a new report from In-Stat.
Growth in China, Western Europe and Brazil helped to fuel the increase, the report 4Q10 PayTV Subscribers Database continues. It also predicts that total global pay-TV subscribers will approach 1.4 billion by 2014.
“Nearly every region showed gains or held their own in 2010,” said industry analyst Stephanie Pickering, in the report’s press release. “However, cable providers were impacted, to at least some degree, by a migration to satellite and/or IPTV in virtually every region.”
The report also found that:
– China has the largest number of pay-TV subscribers with over 160 million;
– The largest regional market of IPTV subscribers is Western Europe with nearly 17.5 million subscribers, of which France has over 10 million, led by Free and Orange;
– Net Servicos de Comunicacao of Brazil is the largest cable operator in the Caribbean and Latin America region;
– AT&T went from the sixth largest telco TV operator in the world at the end of 2009 to the fourth largest in 2010.
This research is part of In-Stat’s Pay TV Subscriber Database which tracks payTV subscribers segmented by operator type, operator, and country/region and includes five-year forecasts with quarterly updates.
