• by Wayne Friedman , December 18, 2012

The worldwide pay TV market keeps growing in terms of subscribers, increasing 6% this year over 2012, with pay TV customer growth slowing down a bit next year. 

Some 47 million subscribers were added this year, to reach a total of 864 million subscribers, according to ABI Research. Next year, the company estimates a 5% rise, or 43 million to 907 million subscribers.

IPTV (Internet-Protocol TV) services will grow at a faster pace -- 11% of 9 million subscribers to 79.3 million in 2013, with much of this coming from the Asia-Pacific region. By itself, China will add more than 3 million.

Cable will continue to have the biggest market share this year at 66.2%, but will decline slightly to 65.4% next year.

The company says that 33% of all pay-TV subscribers have HDTV services, with the biggest usage in North America. It accounts for 84% of all pay-TV subscriptions. Western Europe's HDTV penetration is at 76% of all pay TV subscriptions. ABI Research expects 38% of all global pay TV subscriptions to have some HDTV services.

Overall revenue is projected to keep growing. ABI Research says the worldwide pay-TV market is expected to reach $236 billion in revenue by the end of the year, up from the $223 billion mark from last year.

Pay TV revenue will continue to climb -- estimated to reach $281 billion by 2017.

"Three Friends Watching TV photo from Shutterstock"