Worldwide revenue growth for IPTV services in the next five years will outpace gains of the overall global pay-TV space, a market forecast released Wednesday indicates.
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Between 2011 and 2017, IPTV revenues are anticipated in 2017 to reach $21.3 billion, more than double 2011 revenues totalling $9.7 billion, the Digital TV Research Ltd. report predicts in new forecasts of subscription and on-demand revenues.
Even though it might not have the most subscribers or the biggest slice of the overall market, the United States "will remain the largest IPTV revenue earner by taking a third of the 2017 total," the London-based research firm added.
According to the report, Digital TV World Revenue Forecasts, FiOS TV (not strictly an IPTV play) and U-verse, in particular, have made impressive subscriber gains in the United States, mainly at the expense of the cable operators, due to aggressive pricing campaigns."
The resurgent IPTV business is expected to hammer traditional cable-TV revenues, which should start sliding by 2014, dropping $3.2 billion between 2011 and 2017, to $85 billion, the report continued.
Of course digital cable-TV revenues will be a big chunk of that, climbing from $62 billion in 2011, to $81 billion in 2017, as the analog-to-digital migration continues. China will be up $4.1 billion followed by Japan at $3.6 billion while the United States drops $1.1 billion.
During the same period worldwide, direct to home (DTH and direct broadcast satellite (DBS) revenues will overtake cable-TV starting in 2015 and reaching $91 billion in 2017--up $15 billion from 2011.
"Brazil will add the most DTH revenues ($3.86 billion) between 2011 and 2017--nearly doubling its total in the process," the report's author, Simon Murray, said in a statement. "The U.S. will grow by $3.1 billion (so) Brazil and the U.S. will contribute nearly half of the extra revenues."
Overall pay-TV revenues in 80 countries surveyed by the researchers will climb to about $200 billion, which is up $23 billion from 2011 but only $2 billion from 2016, the report said. The United States will remain the world's largest pay-TV revenue earner but its earnings will fall as homes convert to bundles and competition forces down prices, the report continued.
For more:
- see the Digital TV Research release
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