Q4 2020 pay-TV subs show 4.6% quarter-on-quarter growth
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Editor
| 16 May 2021
Despite taking a battering over the last couple of years, mainly from accelerated cord-cutting, pay-TV subscriptions have been growing at 2-3 times the rates of fixed broadband says research from Point Topic.
Point Topic 16 May 2021
In its latest quarterly survey, the analyst updated its pay-TV subscriber figures by expanding coverage in terms of geographies and technologies. It surveyed 162 operators from 66 countries and while previously mainly focusing on IPTV, the study now includes satellite (DTH) TV, cable TV, DTT and OTT/online streaming services. Point Topic regards the OTT figures as especially interesting, given the role of online video in increasing consumer demand for bandwidth and consequently in driving broadband network upgrades.

As of the end of the fourth quarter of 2020, there were 864 million pay-TV subscribers in its sample, a quarterly subscriptions growth rate of 4.6%. This was an increase of 1.24% compared with the previous quarter. The study observed that pay-TV subscribers have shown different quarterly growth patterns often determined by the timings of various sports seasons and releases of new content such as popular series. Overall, pay-TV subscribers were found to have been growing at 2-3 times the rates of fixed broadband, and with different quarterly growth patterns often determined by the timings of various sports seasons and releases of new content such as popular series. Q4 fixed broadband grew by 1.6%.

Looking at growth drivers, Point Topic highlighted the fact that continuous investment in new content has driven the growth of OTT services, which are the main contributor to the pay-TV boom. It noted that over the last year alone, subscriptions to Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video and other OTT services increased by more than 50%. Over the same period, IPTV services over fibre and copper grew by 10% and 5% respectively, satellite TV saw a 7% decline, while cable TV subscriptions increased by less than 1%.

The study also reported that similar trends can be observed over the last six quarters, with ‘traditional’ pay-TV operators losing out to online streaming service providers. One exception though has been fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) growth, mainly due to China alone reporting 315 million IPTV subscribers using this technology. However, Point Topic stressed that the streaming giants Netflix, Amazon and especially Disney+ are rapidly catching up, despite the fact that they do not lock consumers into long term contracts, enabling them to unsubscribe and re-subscribe as they wish.

Looking at stand out territories, the UK was singled out as a good example of the global trends in TV viewing habits. OTT providers Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Now TV have been growing their penetration among the UK households, while the other TV platforms are either stagnating or losing subscribers. Q2 2020 and Q3 2020 were especially good quarters for online streaming services as consumers spent more time at home due to the pandemic. The Point Topic study found that same was not true for the likes of TalkTalk, BT and Freesat. Sky and Virgin Media also still lost subscribers, albeit at a slower rate than before the pandemic began.