According to Digital TV Research, an additional 134 million people globally will subscribe to pay TV between 2016 and 2022 to take the total to 1.09 billion. Based on forecasts for 138 countries, the number of pay TV subscribers is expected to pass the 1 billion mark in early 2018.
Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV Research, said: "Doom mongers in the U.S. have been predicting the demise of pay TV for some time. Although the U.S. is losing pay TV subs, there is still a lot of life left in the sector. Furthermore, they are ignoring the rest of the world. Asia Pacific will add 92 million subs between 2016 and 2022 - and sub-Saharan Africa will double its total."
Excluding analog cable TV, the research house says global digital pay TV grew from 380 million subscribers in 2010 to 852 million at end-2016 and is expected to reach 1,088 million by 2022.
China is expected to continue to supply about a third of the world's pay TV subscribers. India is expected to bring in another 16% of the total by 2022. China and India together are expected to provide nearly half the world's pay TV subscribers.
Pay TV subscriber counts are expected to double in 26 countries between 2016 and 2022. However, pay TV subscriber numbers are expected to fall in 18 countries.
Murray said: "We believe that the worst of the losses are now over for North America, with 'only' 5 million fewer subscribers forecast between 2016 and 2022."