• by Wayne Friedman , July 3, 2017

Worldwide pay TV service packages are experiencing a dip in growth -- about half the rate of a year ago.

Some 100 of the top global pay TV providers gained 0.8% -- 3.46 million homes -- in the first quarter of 2017, according to Multiscreen Index. That accounts for 430 million TV homes worldwide.

A year ago, the growth rate was 1.7%, and 6.9 million homes.

Multiscreen Index said the first quarter had the lowest growth rate ever for worldwide pay TV subscribers.

The biggest gains continue to be in the Asia-Pacific region -- adding 2.4 million homes -- with the Americas up 850,000 and Europe, Middle East and Africa, 210,000 higher. Major TV services in India added 1.7 million subscribers.

The top 10 U.S. services were down 559,000 subscribers, with only Comcast registering gains. AT&T's telco U-Verse service lost 233,000 subscribers as consumers migrated to its DirecTV satellite company.

Most of the increase came from satellite services, at 1.54 million. Cable was up 1.14 million, with telco pay TV packages adding 780,000 subscribers. Forty-six of the 100 services had gains.

In addition, 95% of TV homes in the Multiscreen Index have access to services that can be viewed on a screen other than a traditional TV screen.