[Satellite TODAY 06-08-10] ABI Research has projected that the global pay-TV subscriber base will grow by 7 percent, reaching 719 million customers by the end of 2010 in a research forecast released June 7.
    The ABI report shows the Asia-Pacific region taking the lion’s share of the global pay-TV market in 2009 with 363 million pay-TV subscribers. Despite cable holding its place as the region’s top pay-TV platform, ABI expects telco TV growth to gain pace with estimates that the Asia-Pacific will attain a 31 percent share of the global telco TV market in 2010.
    In the report, ABI Research Associate Khin Sandi Lynn said innovations such as Google TV would drive pay-TV numbers globally. “Google TV will be very much a competitor to Apple TV which offers a similar service. Apple TV, however, can only access content that is available from the iTunes Store. Google TV will be hoping to fare better. Its additional versatility should be more attractive to regular television viewers.”
    Separately, Arab Advisors Group released a report showing slower growth in the number of free-to-air (FTA) satellite channels in the Arab region at 2.7 percent between March 2009 and April 2010.
The report, “Satellite TV in the Arab World 2010,” showed the Arab region FTA landscape added 13 channels between March 2009 and April 2010, compared to the 104 channels added between August 2007 and March 2009. By April, the total number of FTA satellite channels broadcasting on Arabsat, Nilesat and Noorsat reached 487.
    “In line with the liberalization of the audio visual sectors in the region, the number of private satellite channels exceeds the number of government owned channels: 69.9 percent of the fully launched and operational FTA channels are privately owned while 29 percent are government owned,” Arab Advisors’ Senior Research Analyst Danya Nusseir said in the report.