According to ABI Research, the worldwide pay TV market grew at a steady rate of 4% in 2014 to reach 923.5 million subscribers. “Despite the growth in subscriber base, weak currency exchange rates resulted in a slower increase of pay TV market service revenue. Worldwide the pay TV market generated US$257 billion in 2014 and is expected to surpass 1.1 billion subscribers in 2020 with a CAGR 2.7%,” comments Jake Saunders, VP and Practice Director of Core Forecasting.

Pay TV revenues [subscriptions and on-demand] in North America peaked in 2013 at $102.86 billion, according to a new report from Digital TV Research. The latest edition of the Digital TV North America report forecasts that revenues will fall by 11.7% or $12.04 billion between 2014 and 2020 to $90.71 billion in 2020. 

Parks Associates announced today the release of industry reports providing strategic recommendations for service providers, app developers, and platform developers as consumers turn increasingly to OTT and non-linear content options. The report Under Attack: Assessing New Threats to Pay TV notes that while consumers watch over 30 hours of video per week on average, the number of households planning to cancel their pay-TV service (potential cord-cutters) has also increased, reaching 7% of U.S. broadband households with pay-TV service.

Panasonic Corporation and ITC Global announced today that they have entered into a definitive agreement for Panasonic to acquire ITC Global, a leading provider of satellite communication services for the energy, mining, and maritime markets.

Founded in 2001 with regional headquarters in Houston, Texas; Sion, Switzerland; and Perth, Australia, ITC Global serves customers at more than 1,200 remote sites across 70 countries and all the world’s oceans.  

NSR’s Wireless Backhaul via Satellite 10th Edition report, released today, forecasts the global installed base of satellite backhaul sites will surpass 67,000 by 2025 and will generate US$2.1 billion in revenues. Mobile Backhaul will generate the majority of growth led by Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

New consumer research from Leichtman Research Group, Inc. (LRG) found that 81% of households in the United States have at least one high definition television (HDTV) set, and about 52% of all households have multiple HDTVs. Five years ago, 46% of US households had at least one HDTV, and 17% of households had more than one HDTV.

About 75% of TV sets used in HD households are HDTVs. Including non-HDTV households, 65% of all television sets used in US households are HDTVs -- up from 24% in 2009, and 3% in 2004.

Pay TV revenues in the Asia Pacific region (22 countries) will grow by US$ 10 billion between 2014 and 2020, according to Digital TV Research. The Digital TV Asia Pacific Forecasts report estimates that pay TV revenues will reach US$ 41.52 billion by 2020.

Cable TV will remain the highest pay TV earner, with revenues at $23 billion by 2020. Digital cable TV revenues will grow by 63% between 2014 and 2020 to US$ 22.54 billion, with analog cable TV falling from US$ 6.20 billion to US$ 0.56 billion. 

The US will emerge as the leading market for 4K or Ultra HD TVs in terms of household penetration by 2020 followed by the leading Western European markets, Australia, South Korea and China. According to Strategy Analytics’ Connected Home Devices (CHD) report “Ultra High Definition TV Displays: Global Market Forecast”, demand for UHD TVs is soaring worldwide as entry level price points drop well below US$ 1000, model availability expands and consumers seek out the next best technology as they upgrade their ageing flat panel TVs. 

Other key findings from the report include:  

Worldwide spending on broadband aggregation equipment rose 9 percent in 2014, to US$ 8.2 billion, driven by robust sales of Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) equipment, particularly in China.

Infonetics’ early edition PON, FTTH, and DSL Aggregation Equipment report contains vendor market share and preliminary analysis for the broadband aggregation equipment market for the fourth quarter of 2014 (4Q14) and the full-year 2014.

According to Euroconsult's newly released research titled Prospects for the Small Satellite Market, a total of 510 small satellites, or sma