The number of pay TV subscribers reached 969 million worldside (138 countries) at the end of 2016, an increase of 254 million or 35 percent from 2010, according to the latest survey from Digital TV Research.
Digital cable TV created the most additions by platform, adding 256 million between 2010 and 2016 despite analogue cable TV losing 218 million subscribers. Excluding analogue cable TV, digital pay TV jumped to 852 million in 2016 from 380 million in 2010.
IPTV increased by 76 million extra subscribers, quintupling its total. Satellite TV added 77 million and pay DTT 5 million.
Asia Pacific was the world’s largest pay TV subscriber region, contributing 60 percent 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 but fell in nine countries, with the US down by 4.4 million and Italy by 2.3 million.
