Pay-TV growth at two-year high

Pay-TV operators are enjoying the highest rise in subscriptions for two years.

The latest quarterly Multiscreen Index report from informitv shows most operators are currently gaining subscribers. The 100 pay-television services in the informitv Multiscreen Index gained a total of 8.16 million subscribers in the last quarter of 2015, an increase of just over 2%.

“Despite some losses, our index of leading operators worldwide shows an overall subscriber increase at the close of 2015,” said Dr William Cooper, the editor of the informitv Multiscreen Index. “A quarterly rise of 2% shows there is still growth in pay-television, particularly in emerging markets.”

There were 2.07 million more subscribers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Sky added 337,000 subscribers in Europe, while Tricolor in Russia gained 200,000. However, the greatest gains were in the Asia Pacific region, which added 4.99 million subscribers. Five operators in India accounted for just over 4 million of them.

In North, Central and South America the number of subscribers rose by 1.09 million. Sky Mexico gained 230,000, while DIRECTV added 214,000 in the United States.

The 10 services with the greatest gains added a total of 5.11 million television subscribers in the last quarter and 11.05 million over the course of 2015.