Synopsis
Although the FTA networks, such as ABC, CBS, and NBC all offer digital and increasingly High Definition TV programming, for many years they have been losing audience share to the cable and satellite TV networks. The Big Three are expected to continue to lose market share to the DBS and cable providers as well as, incrementally, to the telcos’ IPTV networks. The US now has one of the highest rates of pay-TV penetration in the world. The market is thus moving to a triple play model in which the telcos, with their expanding fibre network deployments and new IPTV offerings, are likely to become a major force. By 2009 there were nearly 100 million pay-TV (or Multichannel Video Programming Distributors) subscribers in the US, amounting to over 85% of households.