IHS Inc. (NYSE: IHS) today announced key findings from its annual Middle East & North Africa Pay TV Market Monitor report. The report found that 2014 was another year of substantial growth for the pay TV market in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, with pay TV revenues jumping from €702 million in 2013 to €873 million in 2014.

While most households continue to rely predominantly on free satellite TV, the total primary pay TV households rose to 4.8 million from 4.3 million in 2013, a year-on-year increase of 12.4 percent.

Strong promotion of 4K display resolutions from TV makers, display manufacturers and distribution channels has successfully increased consumer awareness and boosted 4K LCD TV penetration in 2014, according to a new report from IHS Inc. (NYSE: IHS).  While 4K is best known as a feature in high-end LCD TVs, starting this year 4K displays will emerge in all major display applications, including desktop monitors, notebook PCs, OLED TVs, digital signage, smartphones, and tablet PCs.

NSR's newly released Wireless Backhaul via Satellite, 9th Edition finds a robust market increasingly impacted by the much deliberated Non-GEO-HTS programs, specifically LEO-HTS presenting both challenges and opportunities for the industry.  A diverse set of market segments are expected to grow at mixed levels, with current and next-generation solutions generating healthy revenue streams from $1.7 billion in 2014 to $5.3 billion by 2024.
 
Various service offerings have and will target all market segments, posing risks and rewards:

The last quarter of 2014 saw the global fixed broadband subscriptions continue to rise with the total standing at 714m at the end of the year. Growth for the quarter was 1.1%, a modest decrease on the 1.2% growth recorded for the previous quarter.

According to Euroconsult's latest report, Mobile Satellite Communications Markets Survey: Prospects to 2024, the Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) industry faces multiple challenges, including increasingly omnipresent mobile VSAT, troop withdrawals, government budget reductions, and unfavorable economics in the shipping industry. The future of the MSS industry now depends on how fast MSS operators can adapt to this new market environment.

Direct-to-consumer initiatives such as HBO Now and Sling TV herald a new era in online streaming as premium, stand-alone services based on content once exclusive to traditional pay TV hit the market. While free, ad-supported, and bundled multiscreen streaming has driven huge usage volumes accoridng to new analysis by Ovum.  The analysts believes that a new era of streaming entertainment is upon us.

NSR’s Aeronautical Satcom Markets, 3rd Edition report released today,  forecast commercial aircraft connectivity markets to reach retail revenues of US $3.2 billion by 2024. In-flight connectivity (IFC) FSS Ku-band and HTS installs on wide-body and narrow-body airplanes will drive the market growth.
 

According to “Global Mobile Satellite Services Market Forecast & Opportunities, 2020” by Research and Markets, the market for mobile satellite services is set to surpass US$ 3.2 billion by the year 2020. Currently, the market is dominated by leading players such as Inmarsat, Iridium, EchoStar, ORBCOMM, Globalstar and Thuraya, which predominantly operate through their distributor networks spread across the globe.

A new report from Arab Advisors Group provides an overview of the High Definition TV channels landscape in the Arab world by. As of March 2015,  the satellites covering the Arab World carried 195 HD channels up from 134 HD channels from February 2014.

The pay TV market has been struggling with increasing customer churn and maintaining ARPU, and is forecast for only 3.7% CAGR through 2020, according to ABI Research. In contrast, OTT video continues its strong growth, and should see around 26% total revenue growth in 2015, with 24% CAGR through 2019.