Cable TV is becoming a rare beast—something to be enjoyed when visiting your parents for a weekend, but uncommon in the average home.
In general, we’re losing patience with cable. And it’s no wonder why—between the sheer volume of free content available on the Internet, and on-demand OTT services like Netflix, we can generally watch what we want, when we watch, which simply isn’t a luxury offered by cable.
And it’s not just cable either. Pay TV as a species is starting to go the way of the dinosaur in the US.
Attractive bundling packages and innovative service offerings from vendors aren’t enough to fully outweigh the effects of intense competitions, the popularity of free Internet TV, straight-up piracy, and the high cost of security infrastructure.
These factors are creating a tumultuous environment for the pay TV market in the US, which is expected to grow at a CAGR of only 1.87% from 2014-2019. In 2014, the cable TV segment dominated the market, followed by the satellite TV segment, which is expected to overtake cable by 2017.
Pay TV in the US by technology
In 2014, the cable TV segment led the market with a share of 46.17%, but this is likely to decrease to 37.58% by 2019 owing to a rise in competition from the satellite TV and IPTV segments.
Cable TV
The cable TV market in the US was valued at $43.51 billion in 2014 and is likely to drop to $38.85 billion by 2019, declining at a CAGR of -2.24%.
Cable is the oldest technology on the market, and relatively low priced, which is helping it hang onto a pretty high market share. However, the cable TV market will see major declines due to increased adoption of digital TV and DTH (direct-to-home) services.
Satellite TV
The satellite TV market in the US was valued at $39.48 billion in 2014. It is expected to reach $41.39 billion by 2019, barely eking out a CAGR of 0.95%.
IPTV
The IPTV market in the US was valued at $11.23 billion in 2014 and is likely to reach $23.17 billion by 2019, growing at a CAGR of 15.59%.
The IPTV market in the US is likely to grow significantly during the forecast period because of advances in technology that facilitate multi-screen viewing, growing broadband subscriptions, and wide-reaching high-speed Internet services.
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