• by Wayne Friedman , January 23, 2014

Global pay TV subscribers will grow 20% over the next five years -- with Internet Protocol TV-based operators seeing higher gains.

ABI Research says the worldwide pay TV market will climb to 1.1 billion in 2019 from 903.3 million in 2013. The overall pay TV market will pull in $320.3 billion in “service” revenue in 2019.

IPTV companies will nearly double to 161 million subscribers in five years from 92 million currently. IPTV will account for 15% of the overall worldwide pay TV market. It will total $37.2 billion in service revenue.

ABI says cable has been the slowest-growing segment, up 3% year-over-year with 570.2 million subscribers -- a 63% market share. Cable TV declined 1% in Western Europe in 2013 over the previous year and 1.5% in North America. Five years from now, worldwide cable TV subscribers will increase 11% -- with growth coming from Asia-Pacific and Latin American markets. Global digital terrestrial TV hit 9.5 million subscribers in 2013, with declining markets in Italy and Spain. Western Europe witnessed a 5% decline in 2013. Africa will grow digital terrestrial TV in the coming years, up to 4.8 million in 2019.