Over-the-top (OTT) pay-TV revenue is expected to grow from $5.8 billion in 2014 to over $10 billion in 2018, said Infonetics Research.
The report said the global pay-TV market grew 3.9 percent to $117 billion in the first half of 2014.
The growth of satellite and telecom pay-TV service revenue was driven by new subscribers and increased average revenue per user (ARPU) in North America and Western Europe.
The Infonetics report said pay-TV service providers posted increased revenue per user. They faced increasing content costs.
The number of pay-TV subscribers increased 10 percent to 837 million, mainly driven by the telecom pay-TV segment.
The report said subscription-based over-the-top (OTT) providers like Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Amazon have seen phenomenal growth over the last couple of years.
Armed with end devices, better interfaces, and content libraries, providers challenge traditional pay-TV providers and are in the early stages of siphoning off revenue.
OTT providers are expanding their relationships with traditional pay-TV providers to get their apps and services integrated directly onto consumer set-top boxes (STBs), gaining access to a much larger pool of current pay-TV subscribers.
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com
