IPTV market to grow 14%, says ABI Research

If you're trying to find the next source of pay-TV market growth, look no further than IPTV, one that ABI Research says will grow 14 percent.  

Trailing IPTV in second place will be satellite TV services, while cable and terrestrial TV will slow to about 3 percent.

Overall, ABI Research forecast that the worldwide pay-TV market will grow 5 percent this year, surpassing 924.4 million subscribers.

"IPTV is expected to grow a market leading 14% in 2015, followed by satellite TV platform at 7%," said Jake Saunders, VP and practice director of Core Forecasting at ABI Research.

During the fourth quarter, AT&T (NYSE: T) and CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) continued to see gains in their IPTV customer bases.

AT&T continued to see growth of its U-verse TV service, adding 73,000 U-verse TV customers. However, this was down from the 194,000 added in the same period of 2013. The telco said the decline was due to a move by AT&T to pursue more profitable customers or those with low-churn rates.

CenturyLink reported that during the fourth quarter it added about 12,900 new Prism IPTV customers, ending the quarter with a total of 242,000 customers while increasing the penetration rate to about 2.4 million homes passed to 10.2 percent.

At the same time, pay-TV providers are enhancing their focus on providing bundles as a way to reduce churn. Besides adding new HD channels, they are now offering advanced PVR services and premium content such as sport content to contribute to increased ARPU.

For more:
- see the release

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