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Tag: IPTV

  • 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.

  • Verizon to Acquire Intel’s IP TV Initiative

    In 2012 it was revealed that Intel was looking to enter the TV industry in force, bringing streaming IPTV and a change to the way cable subscriptions work. Like Apple’s rumored TV plans, however, Intel’s TV ambitions were thwarted by cable companies currently very comfortable with their regional monopolies.

    Today it appears that Intel has given up on IPTV for good. Verizon today announced that it will acquire Intel Media, Intel’s clould TV products and services division. The terms of the deal, including Verizon’s offer, have not been revealed but the transaction is expected to close sometime “early in the first quarter of 2014.”

    Through the purchase Verizon will receive all of the rights to Intel’s OnCue IPTV platform. The former Intel Media will continue to be operated out of its current Santa Clara location and will be run by Intel’s current management. Verizon has stated that it will make offers to the estimated 350 Intel employees currently working at Intel Media.

    As part of its statement on the purchase, Verizon stated that Intel Media will be used to accelerate its plans for IPTV video over its FiOS network. The OnCue platform will be combined with Verizon’s new network video-delivery services to expand the provider’s video offerings, perhaps even through its mobile network.

    “The OnCue platform and team will help Verizon bring next-generation video services to audiences who increasingly expect to view content when, where and how they want it,” said Lowell McAdam, CEO and chairman of Verizon. “Verizon already has extensive video content relationships, fixed and wireless delivery networks, and customer relationships in both the home and on mobile. This transaction provides us with the capabilities to build a powerful, capitally efficient engine for future growth and innovation. We will have the opportunity to enhance, expand, accelerate and integrate our delivery of video products and services to better serve audiences on a wide array of devices.”

  • Pay-TV Subscriptions Reach 886 Million Worldwide

    Pay-TV Subscriptions Reach 886 Million Worldwide

    Though many internet users in the U.S. and Europe are doing away with their traditional cable and satellite subscriptions in favor of streaming solutions such as Netflix and Hulu Plus, the worldwide base of pay-TV subscribers is still rising steadily.

    Today, market research firm ABI Research released a report showing that worldwide pay-TV subscriptions are expected to reach 886.5 million by the end of this year. This represents a 6% increase from subscriptions in 2012. Third quarter 2013 revenue from those subscriptions reached $62.6 billion.

    Given the lack of enthusiasm for pay-TV in western markets, it isn’t surprising that the rise in pay-TV subscriptions is coming mainly from emerging markets such as China, Brazil, and India. ABI predicts that these markets will lead the worldwide pay-TV subscription market to over 1 billion subscriptions and over $229 billion in yearly revenue by the year 2018.

    “Emerging markets are key drivers of global growth in pay-TV subscribers as developed markets are experiencing flat growth rates,” said Jake Saunders, practice director at ABI.

    ABI sees IPTV subscriptions as the main driver of pay-TV subscriptions in countries such as France, Germany, and the UK, with total Western European IPTV subscriptions up 1.9 million year-over-year during the third quarter of 2013. This effect isn’t being seen in other countries such as Italy and Spain, where ABI blames poor consumer buying power for those countries’ 2% and 7% pay-TV subscription drops, respectively.

    North America was seen losing subscriptions last quarter, but only under 1% of total pay-TV subscriptions. Cable TV subscriptions in particular fell by 1.7 million over the past year. Despite the small declines, pay-TV revenue in North America is still rising, suggesting that more expensive offerings are paying off for cable providers. According to ABI, year-over-year pay-TV revenue in North America grew 3% during the third quarter.

  • IPTV Growing as Cable, Satellite Begin to Fade

    IPTV Growing as Cable, Satellite Begin to Fade

    Last month it was revealed that the number of cable subscribers in the U.S. is dropping. In addition, the percentage of U.S. households that exclusively watch over-the-air TV programming is down to only 7%. These statistics suggest that the internet, and TV programming over the internet are becoming more popular than ever.

    Market analyst firm IHS this week released research showing that IPTV is now growing. IPTV plans, which include Verizon’s FiOS and AT&T’s Uverse, gained 398,000 subscribers during the second quarter of 2013. This is close to the number of subscribers pay-TV (cable, satellite, and IPTV) providers lost during the same quarter – 352,000. IHS predicts that this year will be the first that pay-TV subscriptions show an overall decline, down to 100.77 million subscribers from last year’s 100.89. IPTV now has 11% of the total pay-TV market share.

    “Of the three segments in the U.S. pay-TV market, the IPTV sector is enjoying growth, especially in urban areas where it is luring subscribers away from satellite,” said Erik Brannon, U.S. television analyst at IHS. “In particular, satellite’s lack of a true high-speed Internet service or a triple-play bundling option puts it at a disadvantage when competing against IPTV and cable. Cable, meanwhile, has its own problems, including disagreements between operators and content providers over rising programming costs that squeeze customers in the middle.”

    The causes for the shift away from pay-TV cited by IHS are the same ones discussed by other analysts and industry watchers. People cutting out cable (or young people who never sign up for cable) in favor on internet access to Netflix, Hulu, and other services will play a larger role in the future decline of pay-TV. In addition, the current high price of pay-TV services.