The 100 leading pay-television services in the informitv Multiscreen Index gained almost four million subscribers in the second quarter of 2015. The total number of subscribers rose by 3.94 million or just over 1% in the quarter. 54 of the 100 services in the index reported net subscriber gains, although many of these were marginal.
Operators in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region reported the greatest gains, adding 2.35 million digital television subscribers. While most of the leading service providers in the United States lost subscribers, there was an overall increase across North, Central and South America of 0.23 million.
Cable companies gained the most subscribers, adding 1.82 million worldwide, with satellite and telco services each adding just over a million.
The top 10 services in the Multiscreen Index each have over 10 million subscribers. Between them they added 1.40 million digital television homes over the second quarter, reaching a total of 141.40 million.
The 10 services with the largest gains added a total of 3.53 million subscribers, while the 10 with the largest losses shed 0.57 million.
The Multiscreen Tracker of 10 leading multiscreen services gained 0.48 million customers over the quarter and 2.65 million over a year.
| Service | Change quarter |
Subscribers m |
|---|---|---|
| Comcast | -69,000 | 22.31 |
| DIRECTV1 | -133,000 | 20.28 |
| Sky (UK and IE)2 | 124,000 | 12.00 |
| Airtel Digital TV | 339,000 | 10.41 |
| KT IPTV3 | 175,000 | 6.22 |
| Free | 46,000 | 5.99 |
| AT&T U-verse4 | -23,000 | 5.95 |
| Rostelecom cable5 | -20,186 | 5.21 |
| KDDI cable6 | 55,000 | 4.94 |
| Virgin Media7 | -12,200 | 3.74 |
| 481,614 | 97.05 |
1) DIRECTV was acquired by AT&T on 24 July 2015. 2) Sky UK and Ireland now reports total retail customers rather than digital television subscribers. 3) KT IPTV includes OTV and OTS but not Skylife satellite subscribers. 4) AT&T acquired DIRECTV on 24 July 2015. 5) Rostelecom cable figures exclude separately reported subscribers to telco services. 6) KDDI cable figures include JCN and J:COM. KDDI has revised figures to exclude households receiving rebroadcast terrestrial services. 7) Virgin Media acquired UPC (Ireland) in Q1 2015.
Source: informitv Multiscreen Index
“While many services in the United States lost television customers, the worldwide trend shown by our regular report is of organic subscriber growth of around 1% a quarter,” says Dr William Cooper, the editor of the informitv Multiscreen Index. “We also expect consolidation to continue as service providers achieve growth through economies of scale.”
The Multiscreen Index now represents over 380 million digital television subscribers, compared to around 340 million for the previous year. The increase is a result of both organic growth and corporate consolidation drawing more subscribers into the index of 100 services.
“Mergers and acquisitions can mask underlying subscriber movements,” says informitv analyst Dr Sue Farrell. “The Multiscreen Index provides a broader perspective to reveal the bigger picture.”
75 of the 100 services in the index now offer some form of multiscreen access on screens in addition to the traditional television, such as a phone or tablet, computer or other network-connected device.
The Multiscreen Index tracks trends in television services and provides an accessible compilation of top 10 tables and charts showing annual and quarterly changes in subscriber numbers. The index of 100 leading pay-television services worldwide provides an industry benchmark against which television customer gains or losses can be measured, by region and mode of delivery, as well as ranking those with the largest subscriber gains or losses.