Netflix reaches more than 300MN pay-TV households DetailsJoseph O'Halloran | 02 December 2019 No matter what the new DTC firms do between now and the end of the year, Netflix has notched up a strong year, adding over 15 major new pay-TV partners in 2019 to be available to almost half of all pay-TV homes says research from Ampere Analysis.The analyst calculates that the partnerships that the SVOD leader has struck has resulted in more than 300 million pay-TV households worldwide now subscribing to operators who offer access to Netflix through their set-top boxes (STBs).Ampere believes that in all Netflix has struck over 100 major partnership deals giving Netflix theoretical access to nearly half of all global pay-TV subscribers outside China. It adds that by the end of 2018.By the end of 2018, three quarters of pay-TV subscribers in Western Europe had contracts with Netflix partner operators and in North America, as many as 86% of pay-TV subscribers were able to find Netflix on their operator’s STBs at the end of 2018. In addition, the service has now been onboarded onto all the major pay-TV operators in France, a country seemingly immune to the US streamer’s arrival.The analyst noted that the increase in the number of pay-TV partnerships with Netflix marks a distinct shift in the industry, as more and more of the streaming giant’s traditional ‘enemies’ cosy up through onboarding deals.“Netflix has yet to attract many of the large pay TV operators in Central and South America, Asia Pacific (APAC) and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), though it is steadily working on increasing its reach. These markets (excluding China) play host to almost 400 million pay-TV subscriptions, and Netflix currently has around 40 million subscribers in these territories, making these key target areas for the streamer to pursue,” observed Ampere Analysis analyst Elinor Clark.“Of course, Netflix is not the only beneficiary. These partnerships can also be lucrative for pay-TV operators, providing them with an additional revenue stream when there may be downward pressure on their average revenue per user (ARPU) and, in some markets, cord-cutting.”