Based on 138 countries, Digital TV Research estimated 254 million additional pay TV subscribers (up by 35%) between 2010 and 2016 to take the global total to 969 million.
According to the Global Pay TV Subscriber Databook, digital cable TV created the most additions by platform – at 256 million between 2010 and 2016. However, analog cable TV lost 218 million subscribers; dampening overall cable gains. There were 76 million extra subs for IPTV to nearly quintuple its total. Satellite TV added 77 million and pay DTT 5 million.
Asia Pacific is the world’s largest pay TV subscriber region; contributing 60% to the global total. China supplies about a third of the world’s pay TV subscribers, with 313 million by end-2016.
Pay TV subscriber counts doubled in 53 countries between 2010 and 2016. However, pay TV subscriber numbers fell in nine countries, with the US down by 4.4 million and Italy by 2.3 million.
