So, it’s not all cord cutting and customer loss out there for pay TV, at least according to one recent industry report that took a global view. It has most providers gaining subs worldwide.
The latest quarterly Multiscreen Index report from informitv reveals the highest overall rise in the number of pay TV subscriptions around the world for two years, with most operators gaining subscribers. The 100 services covered in the index gained 8.16 million in the last quarter of 2015, an increase of just more than 2 percent.
“Despite some losses, our index of leading operators worldwide shows an overall subscriber increase at the close of 2015,” William Cooper, the editor of the informitv Multiscreen Index, says. “A quarterly rise of 2 percent shows there is still growth in pay TV, particularly in emerging markets.”
The 10 services with the greatest gains added a total of 5.11 million TV subs in the last quarter and 11.05 million over the course of 2015.
Seventeen of the 100 services in the Multiscreen Index reported net subscriber losses for the quarter, with a combined loss of 762,000 TV customers. The largest loss was reported by AT&T U-verse, which shed 240,000 subscribers, as AT&T promoted its satellite acquisition, DirecTV.
Findings from the report include the following:
• In North, Central and South America the number of subscribers rose by 1.09 million, according to the report. Sky Mexico gained 230,000, while DirecTV added 214,000 in the United States.
• Cable operators added the most subscribers, up by 4 million, followed by satellite with 2.95 million and telco providers up by 1.22 million.
• The greatest gains were in the Asia Pacific region, which added 4.99 million subscribers. Five operators in India accounted for just over 4 million of them.
• There were 2.07 million more subscribers in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. Sky added 337,000 subscribers in Europe, while Tricolor in Russia gained 200,000.