IPTV will cause cable’s market share to dip to 65.4% in 2013 from 66.2% in 2012

Telecom Lead Asia: IPTV will cause cable’s market share to decline to 65.4 percent in 2013 from 66.2 percent in 2012.

However, the cable TV market will remain strong in Asia Pacific, especially due to the growth in China and India.

Cable TV will maintain the largest market share of the overall pay-TV market in 2013.

Pay-TV market added around 47 million subscribers in 2012 reaching 864 million subscribers.

ABI Research expects that the pay-TV market will continue to grow in 2013 to reach 907 million subscribers.

Jake Saunders, VP and practice director of core forecasting, said: “The growth in satellite, cable, and IPTV markets was strong, although digital terrestrial TV growth was flat in 2012.”

In 2013, the worldwide IPTV subscriber base is expected to add over 9 million subscribers to reach 79.3 million. More than half of the net addition will be from Asia-Pacific; China alone is expected to add more than 3 million subscribers.

At present, 33 percent of worldwide pay-TV subscribers are using High Definition (HD) TV services. HDTV penetration is the highest in North America followed by Western Europe; accounting for 84 percent and 76 percent of total pay-TV subscriptions respectively. As many of the countries in different regions are trying to switch over to digital transmission, the number of HD channels and packages offered by the operators increase.

“Worldwide HD service adoption is expected to grow. ABI Research forecasts that 38 percent of global pay-TV subscribers will be subscribing to HDTV services in 2013,” said Khin Sandi Lynn, research analyst.

Meanwhile, Analysys Mason said analogue subscription will reduce by more than half to 41 million by 2015 from  88 million in 2011. The number of digital cable TV subscribers in India is expected to reach 61 million in 2015 from  6 million in 2011, says Rohan Dhamija, co-head, India Practice, Analysys Mason, at the Broadcast Digitization Summit organized by Telecom Lead, India’s No.1 B2B portal dedicated to telecom industry.

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