The number of pay TV households in the Middle East and North Africa region increased 10 percent to 4.95 million in 2015, according to a new report from IHS Inc.
Pay TV revenues from primary households’ subscriptions grew 37 percent to €1.17 billion in 2015 from €852 million in 2014 in the Middle East and North Africa.
“Pay TV in the Middle East and North Africa region is growing rapidly and faster than any other region we analyse,” said Constantinos Papavassilopoulos, senior analyst, IHS Technology.
IHS forecasts that pay TV subscribers in the Middle East and North Africa will increase to 6.54 million by the end of 2020, up 32 percent on the end of 2015 and representing a CAGR of 6 percent over the five-year period.
Pay TV revenues are expected to almost double to just over €2 billion in the next five years – mainly due to competition between the major operators, the introduction of TV Audience Ratings Systems in the Gulf States, the expansion of fiber networks, which facilitate the offering of premium pay TV services and the growth of the SVoD OTT services.