IPTV in the Nordics is continuously growing in terms of subscribers. In the second quarter of 2016, the top telecom operators added a net of nearly 210,000 IPTV subscriptions. The upswing compensates for the subscription loss on all other platforms on an overall maturing Nordic pay TV market, according to recent Mediavision estimates.

The total number of pay TV subscribers in Western Europe was earlier this year forecasted to increase with seven million by 2021, according to Digital TV Research. This would push household penetration in the region up to nearly 60 percent. The same research firm has also seen the number of IPTV households doubled in 2015 compared to 2010, now outnumbering satellite TV homes.

Looking at the Nordic countries, the story is similar. In the second quarter of 2016, the top pay TV providers on the Nordic market noted a grand total of 11 million subscriptions, according to Mediavision estimates. This signifies a modest growth of 0.4 percent compared to the same quarter 2015, or a net total of 40,000 more pay TV subscriptions.

Behind the overall pay TV subscriber growth is an increase in the number of households paying for IPTV. Taken as a group, IPTV providers recorded a net gain of 210,000 subscriptions on a yearly basis with double digit growth rates in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Altogether, this resulted in a record high 2.4 million paid IPTV subscriptions all over the Nordics.

Meanwhile, homes paying for satellite, cable and/or terrestrial TV decreased by two percent, meaning a net loss of 170,000 subscriptions compared to last year.

– We expect the IPTV segment to continue to grow. Increased roll-out of fiber with IPTV bundling has driven the growth over the past few years. We have also witnessed a couple of big consolidations on the market, where operators offering IPTV, such as Com Hem in Sweden and Elisa in Finland, have acquired actors operating on older infrastructure. However, IPTV will be hard pressed to drive overall market growth for traditional pay TV. A growing number of Nordic consumers also choose to cord-cut or cord-shave in favor of SVOD services, says Marie Nilsson, CEO at Mediavision.

Press release September 2016.pdf