Global Pay-TV Revenues to Remain Flat Despite Subscriber Growth

Global subscription and PPV revenues are expected to remain flat at around $185 billion between 2016 and 2022, despite the addition of some 120 million subscribers, according to Digital TV Research.

The Global Pay TV Operator Forecasts report estimates that 30 pay-TV operators earned more than $1 billion in 2016. It also predicts that revenue share for the top 10 operators will fall from 55 percent in 2016 to 51 percent in 2022. The share of the top 50 operators will fall from 75 percent in 2016 to 73 percent in 2022.

The U.S. dominates the top 10. AT&T leads with $30.7 million and will continue to lead in 2022, with a projected $29.5 million. Comcast will also hold on to the second spot, with $21.7 million in revenues in 2016 and $17.5 million expected in 2022. The Asia-Pacific region, however, will dominate the ranking of operators by subscriber gains between 2016 and 2022, taking 13 of the top 15 places.

Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV Research, said: “As global revenues are flat this can mean only one thing: the top operators will lose revenues. In fact, 114 of the 522 operators will lose TV revenues between 2016 and 2022.”

Pay-TV subscriptions for the 522 operators covered in the report will increase from a collective 839 million in 2016 to 963 million by 2022. These operators took 87 percent of the 959 million global subscribers by end-2016, with this level expected to inch up to 88 percent of the 1.093 billion total by 2022. The top 50 operators accounted for two-thirds of the world’s pay-TV subscribers by end-2016, with this proportion not expected to change over the next five years.