Despite adding 84 million subscribers between 2017 and 2023, subscription and PPV revenues for the world’s top 517 pay-TV operators will fall by $18 billion to $183 billion, according to data from Digital TV Research
The Global Pay-TV Operator Forecasts report found that all of those who comprised in the leading ten operators in 2017 will likely lose revenues over the next five years. Specifically, the report shows that 168 of the 517 operators (32%) covered in revenues between 2017 and 2023 will lose subscription and PPV income.
From the total calculated in the report, Digital TV Research says that 29 pay-TV operators earned more than $1 billion in revenues in 2017 but expects this total to drop to 25 by 2023. It forecasts that about $20 billion of the revenue losses will fall to the top 10 players; bringing their total down to $87 billion. The pay-TV revenue share for the top ten operators is set to fall from 53% in 2017 to 48% in 2023.
Digital TV Research calculates that pay-TV subscriptions for 517 operators with 747 platforms -comprising 132 digital cable, 126 analogue cable, 286 satellite, 137 IPTV and 66 DTT – across 135 countries covered in the report will increase from a collective 880 million in 2017 to 967 million by 2023. It noted that these operators took 87% of the 1.006 billion global subscribers by the end of 2017, and it expects this level to inch up to 88% of the projected 1.1 billion total by 2023.
In good news for the industry, The Global Pay-TV Operator Forecasts report predicted that 15 operators will likely add more than $100 million between 2017 and 2023, with China Telecom up by $1.4 billion. That said, it also cautioned that five operators, including four from the US, will lose more than $1 billion in revenues. Seven of the top 10 losers will be in the US.
