Global pay TV subscriptions to grow to 1.10 billion by 2024

Thursday, June 13th, 2019
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Global pay TV to add 81 million subscribers

Digital TV Research forecasts 81 million additional pay TV subscribers between 2018 and 2024 – up by 8%. 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.

Global pay TV subscribers by country - China, India, USA, Russia, Germany, Others - 2010, 2018, 2019, 2024
Source: Digital TV Research Ltd

Simon Murray, Principal Analyst at Digital TV Research, said: “Every quarter we hear of alarming cord-cutting in the US. 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.”

He continued: “However, it is not all bad news – 110 countries will gain subscribers. 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% 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 analog cable TV will lose 62 million subs – meaning a net loss for cable.

Excluding analog cable TV, digital pay TV growth is really impressive – rocketing from 380 million subscribers in 2010 onto 954 million at end-2018 and on to 1,096 million by 2024.