MUMBAI:As a result of the global economy over the last few years, pay TV subscriber numbers had been negatively impacted. However, things seem to be improving as the total number of pay TV subscribers by year-end 2010 were greater than year-end 2009 by a little over six per cent, says In-Stat.

 Nearly every region showed gains or held their own in 2010. However, cable providers were impacted, to at least some degree, by a migration to satellite and/or IPTV in virtually every region. Only Western Europe showed any gains in the total number of cable TV subscribers.

Recent research data shows:

•  China has the largest number of payTV subscribers with over 160 million. Shanghai Media SiTV is the largest operator; however, no other payTV operator has more than 5 million subscribers.
• The largest regional market of IPTV subscribers is Western Europe with nearly 17.5 million subscribers, of which France has nearly 11 million, led by CanalSat-TPS (Vivendi) and Free (iliad).
• Net Servicos de Comunicacao of Brazil is the largest cable service provider in the Caribbean and Latin America region.
  AT&T went from the sixth largest IPTV operator in the world at the end of 2009 to the fourth largest in 2010.