Analyst: Pay-TV to add 81m subs
June 13, 2019
According to the Global Pay TV Subscriber Forecasts report from analyst firm Digital TV Research, there will be 81 million additional pay-TV subscribers between 2018 and 2024 – up by 8 per cent. This will take the global total to 1.10 billion. Based on forecasts for 138 countries, the number of pay-TV subs passed 1 billion in 2018.
“Every quarter we hear of alarming cord-cutting in the US,” noted Simon Murray, Principal Analyst at Digital TV Research. “This will continue, with the US losing nearly 10 million subscribers between 2018 and 2024. About 28 of the 138 countries will lose subscribers between 2018 and 2024.”
“However, it is not all bad news – 110 countries will gain subscribers,” he advised. “Asia Pacific will contribute six of the top 10 countries by pay-TV subscriber additions. From the 81 million additional pay-TV subs between 2018 and 2024, 29 million will come from India, 16 million from China and 8 million from Indonesia”.
China will continue to supply about a third of the world’s pay-TV subscribers, with 356 million expected by 2024. India will bring in another 17 per cent of the total by 2024 – or 187 million. China and India will together provide half the world’s pay-TV subscribers by 2024.
IPTV is the winning pay-TV platform. IPTV will add 100 million subscribers between 2018 and 2024 to take its total to 357 million. IPTV overtook pay satellite TV subs in 2018.
Satellite TV and pay DTT will each grow by only 7 million subs between 2018 and 2024. Digital cable TV will add 18 million subs between 2018 and 2024, but analogue cable TV will lose 62 million subs – meaning a net loss for cable.
Excluding analogue cable TV, digital pay-TV growth is really impressive, according to Digital TV Research, rocketing from 380 million subscribers in 2010 onto 954 million at end-2018 and on to 1,096 million by 2024.