Revenues at top 10 pay TV operators to drop $20 billion

Top 10 pay TV operators to lose $20 billion

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. From the total, 29 pay TV operators earned more than $1 billion in revenues in 2017, but this total will drop to 25 by 2023.

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 10 operators will fall from 53% in 2017 to 48% in 2023.

All of the top 10 operators in 2017 will lose revenues over the next five years. In fact, 168 of the 517 operators (32%) covered in the Global Pay TV Operator Forecasts report will lose subscription and PPV revenues between 2017 and 2023.

Top 10 operators by revenues ($ million)

    Operator                      Country    2017        Operator                      Country    2023
    ----------------------------  -------  ------        ----------------------------  -------  ------
1   AT&T (total)                  USA      30,740    1   AT&T (total)                  USA      23,577
2   Comcast (total)               USA      20,017    2   Comcast (total)               USA      15,433
3   Charter merged (total cable)  USA      15,589    3   Charter merged (total cable)  USA      11,942
4   DISH Network (satellite)      USA      12,310    4   DISH Network (satellite)      USA      10,381
5   China Radio & TV (total)      China     8,562    5   China Radio & TV (total)      China     7,405
6   BSkyB (satellite)             UK        5,258    6   BSkyB (satellite)             UK        4,613
7   Verizon Fios (IPTV)           USA       3,857    7   China Telecom (IPTV)          China     3,753
8   Cox (total)                   USA       3,691    8   Sky (satellite)               Brazil    3,662
9   Sky (satellite)               Brazil    3,586    9   Verizon Fios (IPTV)           USA       3,268
10  Altice USA (total cable)      USA       3,190    10  Cox (total)                   USA       2,829

Source: Digital TV Research

Simon Murray, Principal Analyst at Digital TV Research, said: “The good news is that 15 operators will add more than $100 million between 2017 and 2023, with China Telecom up by $1.4 billion. However, 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.”

Pay TV subscriptions for 517 operators with 747 platforms [132 digital cable, 126 analog 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. These operators took 87% of the 1,006 million global subscribers by end-2017, with this level expected to inch up to 88% of the 1,100 million total by 2023.