IPTV and Cable TV Subscribers on Opposite Trajectories

CAMPBELL, CA - “Cable TV and IPTV subscriptions in North America and EMEA continue to move in opposite directions,” reports Jeff Heynen, principal analyst for broadband access and pay TV at market research firm Infonetics Research. “While telcos saw healthy quarter-over-quarter gains in IPTV subscribers in both regions in the first quarter of 2013, cable video subscribers fell off yet again.” These findings come from the second edition of Infonetics' report, "Pay TV Subscriber Database," which tracks the cable video, satellite video and telco IPTV subscribers of over 140 service providers around the world.

Pay TV Subscriber Database Highlights

• From 4Q12 to 1Q13, IPTV subscribers grew over 6 percent worldwide, while cable video subs declined around 1 percent


• The top five IPTV providers by subscribers are, in rank order, China Telecom, Orange, Iliad Group, Verizon and AT&T—together accounting for 43 million subscribers in 1Q13


• Meanwhile, in 1Q13 the top five cable TV providers—Comcast, Guangdong Cable TV, Jiangsu Cable TV, Shandong Cable TV and Zhejiang Cable TV, in alphabetical order—netted 93 million subscribers combined


• China Telecom remains the world leader in telco IPTV subscribers, with around 22 million subscribers as of 1Q13


• IPTV is taking off in the Middle East: Combined, IPTV subscribers for Etisalat, du and Saudi Telecom grew 42 percent year-over-year in 1Q13


• IPTV is also hot in Asia Pacific, where Telekom Malaysia’s subscribers soared 68 percent in 1 year