One in four Homes to have Satellite TV by 2018

London, UK, August 21, 2013--Covering 97 countries, the number of pay satellite TV (DBS or DTH) homes will reach 251 million by 2018, up from 178 million at end-2012 and 103 million at end-2008, according to a new report from Digital TV Research. 

From the 73 million pay satellite TV subscribers added between 2012 and 2018, India will provide 24.4 million, Brazil 9.2 million, Indonesia 6.8 million and Russia 5.9 million. However, the Global Satellite TV Forecasts report estimates that pay satellite TV subscriber totals will fall in 11 countries between 2012 and 2013 as subs convert to other platforms.India will lead the pay satellite TV sector with 61.1 million subscribers in 2018, followed by the US.

India overtook the US in 2012 to take top slot. Brazil and Russia will take third and fourth places respectively. The US will remain DTH market leader by revenues generated, although its share of the total will fall from 43.5% in 2012 to 38.7% in 2018. Brazil will add the most DTH revenues ($3.5 billion) between 2012 and 2018 – nearly doubling its total in the process. 

However, satellite TV revenues will decline for 20 countries between 2012 and 2018. Much of this is due to greater competition forcing satellite TV platforms to offer cheaper packages which will lead to lower ARPUs. Furthermore, low-cost DTH packages are making a significant impact in several countries.

Including free-to-air households, nearly 400 million homes will directly receive TV signals via satellite dishes by 2018, up by almost 100 million on the end-2012  figure. India will be responsible for adding 30 million over this period. A quarter of global TV households will have a satellite TV dish by 2018, up from 21% in 2012 and 14% in 2008.