• by Wayne Friedman , October 24, 2014

Although overall average pay TV fees are expected to drop due to competition, worldwide overall pay TV revenue will climb.

Global pay TV revenues will generate $269 billion by the end of 2014 -- and up to $323 billion by 2019, according to ABI Research. Worldwide pay TV subscribers will grow to 1.1 billion in five years from 920 million this year.

ABI Research says alternative pay TV platforms are growing.

In Japan, for example, satellite TV operator Sky Perfect lost over 200,000 subscribers over the past year due to increasing competition. Still, multiscreen services are helping pay TV operators to reduce churn and boost revenue.

Specific regions continue to show strength for traditional pay TV providers.

For example, DirecTV added 543,000 subscribers in the second quarter of this year in Latin America. This was a sharp increase compared to subscriber net additions of 165,000 in the same quarter of 2013. ABI Research says events like the World Cup helped -- though not in the U.S. where it lost around 39,000 subscribers.

ABI Research says the worldwide IPTV market share grew over 1% point in the second quarter of 2014 compared to the second quarter of 2013.