Chart of the Day: Pay TV subscribers down 1.3% to 907,000

Blame the constant drop on over-the-top services.

OCBC Investment Research said Singapore’s Pay TV market continued its decline as the total number of Pay TV subscribers fell 1.3% quarter-on-quarter to 907,000 as of end-4QCY16.

"Starhub fell by a greater 1.8% QoQ to 498,000 subscribers whilst Singtel’s subscriber base declined at a slower pace of 0.7% to 409,000. ARPU (average revenue per user) remained largely stable as both Singtel and Starhub cited focus continues to be on retaining higher-value customers," it noted.

Here's more from OCBC:

In our view, the key reason for the fall in Pay TV subscribers is mainly due to the increasing adoption by consumers in using over-the-top (OTT) content service providers (e.g. Netflix, etc.).

Whilst both Singtel and Starhub continue to make efforts to manage the contents offered on their Pay TV platforms, we are expecting the downwards trend to persist ahead with more subscribers switching to OTT service providers.

We believe the increasing number of OTT options at affordable pricing will continue to pressure the Pay TV segment.