• by Wayne Friedman , June 14, 2013

Worldwide pay TV homes continue to see steady growth -- rising 5% by the end of this year.

Global pay TV homes will get to 814 million households by the end of year, up from 772 million in 2012, Digital TV Research says.

In five years, pay TV homes will climb 23%, getting to 1 billion TV homes, with the Asia-Pacific countries taking a commanding 59% share to reach 587 million pay TV homes.

China will be the top country -- 313 million by end of 2018. India will be next at 158 million, followed by the U.S. at 107 million. These countries will account for 58% of worldwide pay TV households by 2018.

Still, pay TV subscribing homes -- for both analog and digital homes -- will reach 55.7% of all worldwide TV homes by the end of this year, a slight improvement over the 53.6% of homes by the end of 2012. In five years, the pay TV share of the overall TV market is expected to climb to 63.1%.

Among all global regions, the highest pay-TV penetration will continue to be in North America at 86%. The lowest levels will be in the Mideast and Africa at 29%.

Looking at specific countries, pay TV penetration remains highest in the Netherlands, which will be at a 99.5% share by the end of 2018.