Digitaltveurope.com

Over-the-top and IPTV services will account for most of an expected 8.9% growth in pay TV subscribers in western Europe between now and 2018, according to research from Analysys Mason.

The research group predicts that the number of homes taking pay TV services in western Europe will grow by 9.2 million to 113.3 million over the next five years.

While OTT services, from both pure-play operators and existing pay TV players such as BSkyB with its Now TV service, will see more growth than traditional pay TV, OTT will still account for only 5.6 million primary pay TV services by 2018, according to Analysys Mason. The major impact of OTT will be as a source of TV for secondary TV sets, according to the group.

Traditional pay TV services – cable, IPTV, digital-terrestrial pay TV and satellite – will grow by 3.9% over the same period to 107.7 million, according to Analysys Mason. The researchers predict that cable home swill decline by 6.2% to 43.6 million over the same period as analogue customers choose alternative platforms. Pay DTT homes are also expected to fall in number by 7.7% to 4.9 million, while satellite pay TV households will grow in number by 3.7% to 31.6 million, boosted by growth in markets including Germany.

IPTV services will see strong growth of 29% to reach 27.6 million homes thanks to aggressive bundling by telcos, according to Analysys Mason.