Despite the forecast of Global Pay-TV Operator adding 120 million subs in next six years, pay-TV’s leading companies are set to see revenues from subscription and PPV remain flat at around $185 billion between 2016 and 2022, says Digital TV Research.
In its Global Pay-TV Operator Forecasts report, looking at the world’s leading 522 companies, the analyst calculates that 30 operators earned more than $1 billion in 2016. Pay-TV subscriptions for the 522 operators will increase from a collective 839 million in 2016 to 963 million by 2022. These operators took 87% of the 959 million global subscribers by end-2016, with this level expected to inch up to 88% of the 1,093 million total by 2022.
The top 50 operators accounted for two-thirds of the world’s pay-TV subscribers by end-2016, with this proportion not expected to change over the next five years. By the end of 2016, 15 operators had more than ten million paying subscribers, and this is projected to climb to 18 operators by 2022. A total of 28 operators will add more than one million subscribers.
Yet underneath these seemingly robust takes, it also noted that revenue share for the top ten operators will fall from 55% in 2016 to 51% in 2022. The share of the top 50 operators will likely have fallen from 75% in 2016 to 73% in 2022.
“As global revenues are flat this can mean only one thing: the top operators will lose revenues. In fact, 114 of the 522 operators will lose TV revenues between 2016 and 2022,”observed Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV Research.
Looking at the regional picture, despite collective dominance by US players, the report found that the Asia Pacific region is set to dominate the ranking of operators by subscriber gains between 2016 and 2022 – taking 13 of the top 15 places. Only 93 of the 522 operators will lose subscribers between 2016 and 2022.
China Radio & TV ranked in the survey as the world’s largest pay-TV operator by a long way. This, said the analyst, was a result of Chinese Government policy to consolidate cable TV means that China Radio & TV quickly became the world’s largest pay-TV operator, with 227 million subs by end-2016 – more than the next 11 operators combined.
