Pay-TV revenues will drop back to 2010 levels over the next five years according to new figures from Digital TV Research.
According to the company, pay-TV revenues [subscription fees and PPV movies and TV episodes] for 138 countries peaked in 2016 at $205 billion. Revenues will fall by 14 per cent to $177 billion in 2024, the same level as 2010 – despite the number of pay-TV subscribers climbing by 380 million between 2010 and 2024.
Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV Research, said: “Subscriber growth is mainly in developing countries where ARPU is lower than the developed countries. In addition, subs are moving away from standalone packages to double-play and triple-play bundles. Standalone packages are more lucrative to TV.”
Eight of the top 10 countries will lose revenues between 2018 and 2024. The US will fall by $21 billion – or down by 22 per cent; while the UK is predicted to fall by nearly $1 billion between 2018 and 2024 – or down by 14 per cent.
The top five countries will account for 59 per cent ($105 billion) of global pay-TV revenues by 2024. The next 15 countries will bring in a further 23 per cent ($40 billion). Therefore, the top 20 countries will contribute 82 per cent of pay-TV revenues by 2024.
