Global Pay-TV Revenues Drop, Subs Rise

A new report from Digital TV Research indicates that pay-TV revenues will drop to $152 billion in 2025, despite the rising number of subscribers, led by India and China.

Pay-TV revenues peaked at $202 billion in 2016, dropping by $9 billion in both 2018 and 2019. Meanwhile, pay-TV subscribers are set to increase by 34 million between 2019 and 2025 to reach 1.06 billion. (Subscribers topped the billion mark in 2018.)

Five countries will account for 54 percent of pay-TV subs by 2025—Canada, the U.K., India, China and the U.S.—down from a share of 62 percent in 2019. Pay-TV revenues in the U.S. will fall by $23 billion between 2019 and 2025 (they peaked in 2016 at $105 billion) to reach $56 billion. The U.K. and Canada will each lose almost $1 billion, while India will add $800 million.

China and India will remain the biggest pay-TV markets, accounting for half of the world’s pay-TV subscribers by 2025.