Over-the-top pay-TV revenues will increase from $6 billion this year to more than $10 billion by 2018.
Overall, the global pay-TV market totaled $117 billion in the first half of this year, which was an increase of 4 percent from the first half of last year, according to a report by Infonetics Research.
“Subscription-based over-the-top (OTT) providers like Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Amazon have seen phenomenal growth over the last couple of years. With a combination of wide availability across end devices, user-friendly interfaces, and access to vast content libraries, these providers continue to challenge traditional pay-TV providers and are in the early stages of siphoning off revenue,” said Jeff Heynen, principal analyst for broadband access and pay TV at Infonetics Research. “But beyond this approach, OTT providers are now expanding their relationships with traditional pay-TV providers to get their apps and services integrated directly onto consumer set-top boxes (STBs), gaining access to a much larger pool of current pay-TV subscribers.”
Other highlights from Infonetics’ pay-TV report included:
• Satellite and telco pay-TV service revenue continued to grow, driven by new subscribers and increased average revenue per user (ARPU) in North America and Western Europe/ However, much of the increased revenue per user is being offset by ever-increasing content costs.
• Pay-TV subscribers reached 837 million in the first half of this year, growing 10 percent over 2013, with the strongest growth coming from the telco pay-TV sector.
