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Tag: cable TV subscribers

  • Pay-TV Subscriptions to Top 1 Billion This Year

    Pay-TV Subscriptions to Top 1 Billion This Year

    Over the past few years, as the internet’s profile has risen as a mainstream entertainment service, cable and satellite providers have seen subscription numbers dropping. At the same time, purveyors of IPTV services have been seeing an influx of subscribers.

    The rise of IPTV has helped the overall pay-TV market grow throughout the past two years, with subscriptions hitting nearly 900 million near the end of 2013. Now, a new report from ABI Research shows that pay-TV subscriptions could hit over 1 billion during the coming year.

    The new report estimates that pay-TV subscriptions will rise to 1.1 billion during 2014. This would bring in just over $320 billion in revenue for pay-TV providers. This represents a significant rise from the nearly $250 billion that ABI estimates pay-TV operators took in during 2013.

    “Increasing FTTH (fiber to the home) subscriber base and bundled subscriber base of telcos are boosting the IPTV market,” said Jake Saunders, practice director of core forecasting at ABI. “ABI Research forecasts that the IPTV subscriber base will grow to 161 million subscribers in 2019 accounting for 15% of overall pay-TV market.”

    While cable subscriptions in the U.S. and other emerging markets are declining, ABI reports that emerging markets are still seeing cable TV growth, especially in Asia and South America. Along with cable and IPTV growth overall, Africa is seeing incredible growth in the pay digital terrestrial television (DTT) market. ABI estimates that DTT subscriptions rose 45% in Africa during the previous year.

  • New Apple TV Could be a DVR and Set-Top Box

    If anyone can fix the DVR, it’s Apple. The company has been trying to impact the way consumers watch TV for years with the Apple TV, but without cable TV content the device doesn’t do much that other online streaming content boxes such as the Roku HD or many Blu-Ray players can’t also do. This week it was revealed that Apple is in talks with cable companies to allow an Apple device to be used as a DVR and set-top box. Now the details of just what Apple has in mind have been revealed.

    According to a Wall Street Journal report, an Apple device used as a DVR would allow customers to store TV shows in the cloud and begin watching them at any time, even if the show is still airing live. It would also allow users to share TV shows over social networks and play content from other Apple devices, such as an iPhone or iPad.

    The report also states that such a device would, of course, use an icon-rich iOS user interface. TIVO was hedged out by cable companies that prefer their customers use DVRs that allow those companies to more tightly control how content is consumed. Since then, the user interface and product design of DVRs has taken a back seat to digital rights management (DRM) and advertising considerations. This issue is only now beginning to be improved upon, though cable customers still have little choice in what DVR they receive from a cable company.

    Of course, cable companies make money by forcing customers to rent DVR cable boxes. However, Apple has proven with iTunes that it can single-handedly change an industry and drag it into the future. Perhaps cable companies, who are coming up against streaming services such as Netflix and technologies that invalidate their business model, will see this outreach from Apple as a lifeline and turning point for the cable industry. Only time will tell whether Apple will provide the restrictions that cable companies prefer to put on their content or open that content up to ideas such as an a-la-carte pricing model. An Apple “channel” store instead of an app store would be a step in the consumer-friendly direction.

    What sort of device the Wall Street Journal was referring to isn’t clear. It seems obvious that Apple will implement such features into the Apple TV if it can, providing customers with an inexpensive way to upgrade their cable-viewing experience. Rumors of an Apple HDTV set have been swirling for more than a year, though, and it wouldn’t be surprising for Apple to market an all-in-one solution for TV viewing.

  • PayPal Teams Up with Comcast & TiVo to Offer E-Commerce on Television Sets

    PayPal Teams Up with Comcast & TiVo to Offer E-Commerce on Television Sets

    Get ready! Starting this Fall some cable TV subscribers will be able to donate money and buy products and services from their television sets.

    PayPal, EBay’s online pay service, has teamed up with Comcast Corporation and TiVo to bring the idea to life.

    You might recall that PayPal has been working tirelessly to bring their service to more and more location, and this latest partnership should give them an advantage that will be sure to attract the attentions of their competition.

    The TiVo boxes that deliver the service will feature the newest cutting-edge four-tuner configuration. PayPal has been working to get e-commerce to television since 2012, and the new partnership with TiVo and Comcast is the solution for customers who want the convenience they enjoy on their smartphones to transfer over to their television sets. It also has the potential to attract a whole new market of consumers.

    Apparently, the plan is still in its early stages of development, but most of the infrastructure already exists to make it a reality. So, if you’ve been hoping for easier ways to part with your hard-earned cash, help is on the way. It’s going to be all too easy. Just point your remote and click “Buy”.