According to Infonetics Research, the global pay TV services market - including cable TV, satellite TV, telco TV and over-the-top (OTT) video - totaled $237 billion in 2014, up 7% from the previous year.
"In a growing number of pay TV markets, service providers are expanding market presence by offering their own OTT video services, primarily as apps on tablets and third-party OTT media servers. Dish Networks, the second-largest satellite provider in the U.S., is offering an OTT video service called Sling TV that's aimed squarely at cord-cutters and cord-nevers," wrote Jeff Heynen, research director for broadband access and pay TV at IHS. "The net result of these offerings will be slower revenue growth globally as OTT services carry a lower ARPU."
"Pay TV providers are also actively marketing 'skinny' bundles of 10 to 30 channels in more affordable packages," Heynen wrote. "Verizon has gone so far as to introduce multiple bundles of channels that subscribers can add on top of their base channels to create a custom channel lineup."
Other findings indicate:
- Global pay TV subscribers reached nearly 800 million in 2014 (up 5%); for the first time, the OTT pay TV segment provided the strongest growth.
- Over the 5 years from 2014 to 2019, OTT pay TV services are forecast by IHS to have the highest compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of any pay TV service.
- Cable pay TV revenue growth slowed to 1.8% in 2014, largely due to sluggish subscriber growth in North America, where net video subscribers are declining around 1% to 3% annually.