Pay TV Subscribers to Reach 1.1B by 2019

The television viewing habits of consumers continue to evolve, but one thing remains clear: People like watching TV and they don’t hesitate to pay for it.

According to ABI Research, more than 1.1 billion people will pay more than $320 billion for television programming by 2019. At the end of 2013, 903.3 million customers opened their wallets to the tune of $250 billion for such entertainment, meaning the market is expected to increase nearly 28 percent over the next six years and expand its customer base by 22 percent.

What’s most interesting about this research, perhaps, is the fact that Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) programming is expected to increasingly pervade the market, gaining more and more of a chunk of the pie. Thanks to over-the-top (OTT) programming and TV Everywhere, consumers continue to leverage the power of the Internet to watch television via mobile devices.

Of the 2013 numbers, IPTV boasted 92 million subscribers who shelled out $37.2 billion—an 18.5 percent increase from the previous year. The report notes that the cable market, in comparison, grew by a mere three percent last year, inching up to $570.2 million. ABI projects that by 2019, 161 million consumers expectwill be supporting IPTV companies. That figure represents a 15-percent chunk of the market, up from the 10 percent it held last year.

As more and more people integrate mobile devices into their everyday lives—and OTT providers and TV Everywhere initiatives continue to gain steam—one could expect IPTV providers will find themselves in increasingly lucrative financial positions.