U.S. operators expected to rake in $39B more in triple-play revenues by 2016

More than 25 percent of TV households globally will have triple-play services that include broadband, telephony and TV in 2016 thanks to more attractive deals on these types of packages, says a new study from Digital TV Research.

The study forecasts that triple-play revenues will jump to $170 billion by 2016, which is nearly $100 million more than the 2010 total. U.S. operators are expected to rake in $39 billion of the additional revenues.

"The 2016 3P penetration doesn't sound too impressive until you realize that this represents 387 million homes, up from 96 million at end-2010," report author Simon Murray said in a release. "Rivalry for pay TV and broadband subscribers has never been so fierce--and it's going to get even more competitive. Operators are pushing their bundled packages hard to attract new subscribers and to retain existing ones."

The firm predicts that Asia Pacific's triple-play subs will represent 58 percent of triple-play revenues by 2016, up from 35 percent in 2010. Of the 291 million additional subscribers, 147 million will be in China alone, followed by an additional 24 million in the U.S., 18 million more in India and 13 million extra in Russia. China will supply 44 percent of global 3P subs by 2016.

Murray said that the lowered prices for bundles will translate into higher overall ARPU for providers but will lower revenues from the component parts. That means operators will reduce TV channel choice and will become more reluctant to pay carriage fees for basic channels.

For more:
- see this release

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