DirecTV 8 satellite (SSL photo)
WASHINGTON DC, March 22, 2007 - Satnews Daily - Satellite TV continues to eat into cable TV’s market share and now controls 29 percent of the pay TV market in the USA.
Figures released by the Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB) also show that cable TV's audience share of the pay market dropped from 89 percent to 71 percent since 2000. Leading satellite TV firms DirecTV and EchoStar together have nearly 30 percent of the pay TV audience. Their market share has risen some 200 percent in the last seven years.
TVB said the satellite TV industry had 29 percent of the pay market in February 2007 compared to just 9.5 percent in February 2000. TVB says DTH services are now in 25 percent of all TV households, including homes that do not subscribe to either cable or satellite. Cable was in 61 percent of all homes.
The cable-satellite war is expected to intensify in the coming years with the growth of High-Definition TV (HDTV). Both satellite and cable are determined to position themselves as the go-to service for HDTV.
New TV services from telcos Verizon and AT&T are targeting the lucrative pay TV market. In February, Verizon reported 207,000 subscribers and AT&T, 7,000.
