Western Europe Pay-TV Market Poised for Growth

Western Europe is set to surpass 100 million pay-TV subscribers, and more gains are on the horizon in the next five years, according to Digital TV Research.

The Western Europe Pay TV Forecasts report estimates that the pay-TV market in the region will increase 6.7 percent, adding nearly 7 million more subs, bringing the total to 106 million. Western Europe is expected to cross the 100 million pay-TV subs mark in June this year.

Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV Research, said: “Better news is that the number of digital pay-TV subscribers will increase by 15.6 percent (14 million) over the same period. Analog cable subs will fall from 8 million in 2016 to 500,000 in 2022.”

Much of the subscriber growth will come from countries with traditionally low pay-TV penetration. Two-thirds of the region’s net additions will come from Italy (up by 1.47 million or 20 percent between 2016 and 2022), Spain (up by 1.36 million or 23 percent) and France (up 1.41 million or 11 percent). However, subscriber growth will be lower than 3 percent for eight of the 18 countries covered in the report.

Despite the number of pay-TV homes increasing, pay-TV revenues will remain flat at around $28 billion. Satellite TV will continue to be the most lucrative pay-TV platform, but its revenues will decline by nearly $1 billion between 2016 and 2022. IPTV revenues will climb by 27.6 percent between 2016 and 2022 to $5.87 billion, or up by $1.27 billion.