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Most Pay TV Operators Will Gain Subscribers and Revenue: Forecast

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Even in this era of streaming video and cord-cutting, pay TV is booming. For smaller operators, anyway. A forecast created by Digital TV Research finds that, for 505 operators in 135 countries, three-quarters will increase their subscribers between 2018 and 2024. Also, two-thirds of them will increase their revenue during that same time frame.

News 2The forecast breaks pay TV operators into groups by size, and says that the top 50 operators collectively have two-thirds of all pay TV subscribers, something that's true now and will continue through 2024. The top 10 operators alone have 45% of all subscribers.

“China Radio and TV is the world’s largest pay TV operator by a long, long way," notes Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV Research. "It had 185 million subs by end-2018 [18% of the global total]—as much as the next four operators combined. However, China Radio and TV will lose 25 million subscribers between 2018 and 2024, mainly to IPTV (faster broadband) and OTT (more content choice).”

While two-thirds of operators will increase revenues, the overall trend is a revenue decline. Total revenues for all 505 operators from subscriptions and pay-per-view will drop to $161 billion by 2024, a loss of $21 billion from 2018. The top 10 operators will experience nearly all that loss, as 9 of the top 10 will see their revenues decline over the next 5 years.

This data comes from the Global Pay TV Operator Forecasts report, available for purchase.

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