Leading pay TV providers worldwide 2014, by subscribers

The statistic shows the leading pay TV providers worldwide in 2014, by number of subscribers. Ranked third is the U.S. company Comcast with 22.4 million paying subscribers.

Leading pay TV providers– additional information

The number of pay TV subscribers worldwide is forecast to pass the one billion mark for the first time in 2021, a significant jump from 2010, when there were 716 million pay TV subscribers worldwide. This increase is mainly driven by the growth of emerging markets such as Asia Pacific and Latin America. Pay TV revenue in North America, a mature market, is forecast to slightly decrease in the coming years, whereas both Asia Pacific and Latin America show growth projections. As of the second quarter of 2015, Comcast and DirecTV/AT&T had 18 percent of the share of the global pay TV market each. China Radio & TV, Liberty Global, News Corp and 21st Century Fox are also leading pay TV providers in the world.

China Radio & TV is, by far, the largest pay TV provider in the world in number of subscribers. In 2014, the Chinese provider had nearly 198 million subscribers. By 2020, this figure is projected to increase to 250 million. Much of this growth is attributed by specialists to government policy to consolidate cable TV operations in China. China Telecom and BesTV, both Chinese providers, are forecast to become the second and the third largest pay TV providers in the world respectively. By 2020, the number of China Telecom subscribers is projected to reach nearly 28 million, while BesTV is forecast to have about 25 million paying subscribers. Along with these three Chinese pay TV providers, Hathway and Dish TV, both Indian pay TV providers, are forecast to have a significant share of the pay TV market in Asia Pacific by 2020.