At the end of 2012, broadband analyst firm Point Topic reported that subscriber numbers for copper-based broadband services had fallen for the first time, with 415k subscribers lost in the fourth quarter. New figures reported by Point Topic show that this decline has accelerated in 2013, with 2.77m copper broadband subscribers lost in the first three months of the year. ‘Copper-based’ services include all DSL, ADSL and ADSL2+ subscribers reported by operators across the world. Point Topic’s database of subscriber numbers also includes cable subscriber numbers, FTTx/VDSL and FTTH.

The connected TV apps and services market is expected to explode in the next five years as new app frameworks in smart TVs, net-tops (i.e. Apple TV, Roku), Blu-ray devices and game consoles serve as the foundation for a new TV app economy. NextMarket Insights forecasts the US TV app economy to reach $14 billion by 2017, up from under $4.5 billion in 2012.

Live video continues to dominate on-demand as desktop viewers watched live video 13 times longer than video on demand (VOD) in the first quarter of 2013. Taken together, the share of tablet and mobile video grew 19 percent in first quarter of 2013 as mobile and tablet video now account for more than 10 percent of all online video plays.

Multimedia Research Group (MRG) believes that the growth of TV multi-taskers, defined as people who are using a second screen device to view or control content related to what they are watching on the big screen (TV), will be the primary users of personal program guides, and will spur continued use and development of recommendation engines. Research data confirms that there are approximately 36 million mobile device owners (14% of US 13+ adults) that use their smartphones and/or tablets in association with TV programs they are currently watching.

Global pay TV households will reach nearly 1 billion by 2018, up from 772 million  in 2012 and 814 million in 2013. According to the Digital TV World Household  Forecasts report, the Asia Pacific region will contribute 59% (587 million) of the  global total by 2018.

Based on forecasts for 97 countries by Digital TV Research, China will have the  most pay TV subs, at 313 million by end-2018, followed by 158 million in India and  107 million in the US. These three countries will account for 58% of global pay TV  households by 2018.

QuickPlay Mediatoday revealed the results of a survey focused on mobile TV and video viewing habits as well as ad tolerance in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. The survey results reveal insights about ad tolerance across streaming devices, the popularity of Live TV, video on demand (VOD) and the factors that motivate users to pay for premium services.

U.S. Consumers are More Tolerant of Streaming Video Ads

By 2015 there will be an estimated 119 million connected devices, including the TV, delivering broadband Internet to TVs in U.S. homes, a 51 percent increase from the 78.5 million currently Internet connected today, according to a new report from global information company, The NPD Group

The number of pay TV subscribers in Western Europe increased by 1 million in 2012 to 94.1 million, and will climb by another million in 2013, according to a new  report from Digital TV Research. 

This comes despite pay TV subscriptions falling in Italy (down by 482,000) and  Spain (down by 350,000) in 2012. Italy and Spain will experience further falls in  2013, but both countries will start to recover in 2015.

Global mobile data traffic expanded at 69% in 2012 and is anticipated to grow at 72% in 2013 to reach 23,000 Peta Bytes, according to ABI Research. By 2018 total mobile data traffic will likely eclipse 131,000 Peta Bytes.

“There has been much ‘doom-mongering’ about this growth in mobile data traffic but mobile carriers should not panic just yet. There are indications that mobile carriers have a number of options to handle the traffic loads,” said Jake Saunders, VP and practice director for core forecasting at ABI Research.

Point Topic has published its latest set of 5-year worldwide broadband subscriber number forecasts. It predicts there will be 940 million fixed broadband subscribers across the globe by the end of 2018.

The forecasts report is free to access for anyone who registers on the Point Topic site.