Pay TV Grows Despite Cable Sub Losses

According to Infonetics Research, strong momentum in Brazil, Russia, India and China have helped pay TV revenue and subscriber numbers continue to grow despite cable sub losses in North America and Western Europe. New services such as smart home and multiscreen video are helping cable ops' bottom lines.

• Pay TV providers took in $287 billion worldwide in 2012, 10% more than in 2011, for cable and satellite pay TV and telco IPTV services.



• Cable makes up the largest portion of the pay TV market, but this is expected to change by 2017 when satellite is expected to grow to more than 40% of total pay TV revenue.



• Telco IPTV revenue is growing fastest among the three pay TV segments, forecast to grow at a 19% CAGR through 2017.



• Pay TV subscribers reached 730 million in 2012, up 7% from the previous year.



• In 2012, digital cable pay TV subscribers outnumbered analog subscribers for the first time, bolstered by European Union's transition from analog to digital.



• DirecTV and Comcast are the reigning kings of pay TV: DirecTV has the highest ARPU, while Comcast has the most subscribers.