MENA to reach 11 million pay-TV subs by 2014

The Middle East and North Africa will be home to 11 million pay-TV subscribers by the end of 2014, according to new research from Informa Telecoms and Media.

The region’s pay-TV market will increase by four million subscribers between the end of 2008 and 2014, with over 60% of subscribers coming from Israel and Turkey. Turkey’s Digiturk DTH platform is forecast to increase its subscriber base to 2.5 million in 2014 from its current base of two million, while Israeli cable operator Hot will grow to 967,000 from 918,000.

ART is currently the largest pan-regional operator, boasting 894,000 subscribers but is likely to grow to 1.4 million by 2014. According to Informa, the confirmed merger between Orbit and Showtime will make the new entity the region’s fourth-largest pay-TV operator with a subscriber base of over 600,000. That number will grow to 872,000 by 2014.