SCOTTSDALE, AZ — After anemic performance in the global recession, the number of pay-TV subscribers turned up sharply in 2010, growing by a little over 6 percent, according to a new report by In-Stat.

“Nearly every region showed gains or held their own in 2010. However, cable providers were impacted, to at least some degree, by a migration to satellite and/or IPTV in virtually every region,” says In-Stat analyst Stephanie Pickering. “Only Western Europe showed any gains in the total number of cable TV subscribers.”

Key findings include:

  • China has the largest number of pay-TV subscribers – more than 160 million. Shanghai Media SiTV is the largest operator; however, no other payTV operator has more than 5 million subscribers.

  • The largest regional market of IPTV subscribers is Western Europe. There are nearly 17.5 million subscribers, of which France has nearly 11 million, led by CanalSat-TPS (Vivendi) and Free (iliad).

  • Net Servicos de Comunicacao of Brazil is the largest cable service provider in the Caribbean and Latin America region.

  • AT&T went from the sixth-largest IPTV operator in the world at the end of 2009 to the fourth-largest in 2010.
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