Pay-TV household penetration in the Americas is expected to decline from 53.2% in 2018 to 48.8% in 2023 due to ongoing cord-cutting trends in North America, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

In 2018, pay-TV household penetration in Central & Eastern Europe reached 71.2%, APAC 67.4% and Western Europe 62.5%. The global average stood at 55.3%.

Eulalia Marín-Sorribes, Technology Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Household penetration will continue to increase in all regions but APAC and the Americas. Markets in the US and Canada have been experiencing declines in the last few years, due to an increasing number of customers leaving their traditional pay-TV subscriptions in favour of OTT alternative video platforms.”

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Marín-Sorribes continues: “Although cord-cutting is not affecting Latin America as a region yet, we expect subscriber growth will decelerate in the coming years as customers’ appetite for on-demand content increases and new commercial platforms in the SVoD market emerge. In order to slow the decline, traditional pay-TV operators are enhancing their video service proposition with OTT features and relevant content offers.”

Due to increasing demand for HD and 4K content, OTT video and interactive pay-TV platforms, pay-TV service provides have been allocating significant investments to upgrade and expand their network infrastructure with FTTH/B roll outs and cable upgrades.

Marín-Sorribes concludes: “The commercial arrival of 5G services with increased transmission speeds will bring new growth opportunities in the OTT video segment, as well as increased competition levels in the fixed broadband and media/pay-TV segments. This will accelerate cord-cutting trends, particularly in the most mature markets.”