Global PayTV subscribers increase 6% in 2010 over 2009

15 April 2011 | Industry news

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As a result of the global economy over the last few years payTV subscriber numbers had been negatively impacted. . However, things seem to be improving as the total number of payTV subscribers by year-end 2010 were greater than year-end 2009 by a little over 6%, says In-Stat.

“Nearly every region showed gains or held their own in 2010. However, cable providers were impacted, to at least some degree, by a migration to satellite and/or IPTV in virtually every region,” according to Stephanie Pickering, Industry Analyst. “Only Western Europe showed any gains in the total number of cable TV subscribers.”

Recent research data shows:

China has the largest number of payTV subscribers with over 160 million. Shanghai Media SiTV is the largest operator; however, no other payTV operator has more than 5 million subscribers.
The largest regional market of IPTV subscribers is Western Europe with nearly 17.5 million subscribers, of which France has nearly 11 million, led by CanalSat-TPS (Vivendi) and Free (iliad).
Net Servicos de Comunicacao of Brazil is the largest cable service provider in the Caribbean and Latin America region.
AT&T went from the sixth largest IPTV operator in the world at the end of 2009 to the fourth largest in 2010.