Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

[Via Satellite 08-21-13] The number of pay satellite TV homes will reach 251 million by 2018, up from 178 million at end-2012 and 103 million at the end of 2008, according to a new Digital TV Research report. Free-to-air Direct to Home (DTH) households are also expected to rise, reaching 142.6 million households in 2018, compared to 118 million in 2012. Together, this will result in approximately 393.8 million homes receiving satellite TV in 2018 out of a total 1.58 billion TV households, according to the study, which looked at 97 countries.

The projected top four pay satellite TV countries in 2018 will be India with 61.1 million subscribers, USA with 36.6 million, Brazil with 19 million and Russia with 16.7 million. The U.S. is expected to remain DTH market leader by revenues generated, although its share of the total will fall from 43.5 percent in 2012 to 38.7 percent in 2018. Brazil will add the most DTH revenues between 2012 and 2018, the research said, though satellite TV revenues will decline in 20 countries between 2012 and 2018, due to greater competition, driving satellite TV platforms to offer low-priced packages.