Forecast: Cord-cutting to hit W Europe pay-TV
March 11, 2024
Western Europe will lose nearly 9 million pay-TV subscribers between 2023 and 2029 to reach 93 million – down by 8 per cent, according to the Western Europe Pay-TV Forecasts report from analyst firm Digital TV Research. This is nowhere near as bad as the US as pay-TV penetration will still be 53 per cent by 2029 – down from 58 per cent in 2023.
Pay-TV subscriber counts will fall for 14 of the 18 countries between 2023 and 2029. Germany will lose 2.7 million subs, with the UK down by 2.0 million, Italy 1.5 million and France by 1.1 million.
IPTV will gain 1 million subscribers between 2023 and 2029, with pay satellite TV down by 6.4 million, pay DTT down by 0.8 million and cable down by 2.4 million.
“Pay satellite TV will be the biggest loser because most DTH platforms do not offer broadband access,” notes Simon Murray, Principal Analyst at Digital TV Research. “This is not true of Sky, which wants to convert its satellite TV subscribers to its streaming platforms. Sky will lose 1.8 million satellite TV subs in both Germany and the UK as well as a further 1.3 million in Italy – or nearly 5 million in its five territories between 2023 and 2029.”