Report: Top 10 Pay-TV Operators to Lose $20 Billion

Digital TV Research is forecasting that the world’s top 10 pay-TV operators will see revenue losses of about $20 billion by 2023, bringing their total down to $87 billion.

While the subscriber base is set to add 84 million subs between 2017 and 2023, subscription and PPV revenues for the world’s top 517 pay-TV operators is forecast to fall by $18 billion to $183 billion. From the total, 29 pay-TV operators earned more than $1 billion in revenues in 2017, though this total will dip to 25 by 2023.

All of the top 10 operators in 2017 will lose revenues over the next five years, according to the Global Pay TV Operator Forecasts report. Digital TV Research predicts that 168 of the 517 operators (32 percent) covered in the report will lose subscription and PPV revenues between 2017 and 2023.

Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV Research, said: “The good news is that 15 operators will add more than $100 million between 2017 and 2023, with China Telecom up by $1.4 billion. However, five operators, including four from the U.S., will lose more than $1 billion in revenues. Seven of the top 10 losers will be in the U.S.”

Pay-TV subscriptions for 517 operators with 747 platforms—132 digital cable, 126 analog cable, 286 satellite, 137 IPTV and 66 DTT—across 135 countries covered in the report will increase from a collective 880 million in 2017 to 967 million by 2023. These operators took 87 percent of the 1.006 billion global subs by end-2017, with this level expected to notch up to 88 percent of the 1.1 billion total by 2023.