Pay TV subs topped 1bn in 2018 as OTTs see significant revenue growth

September 2, 2019

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  • IPTV reached 257m subs and surpasses satellite TV
  • Cable accounts for half of all pay TV according to Digital TV Research
  • SVOD holds 53% share of OTT revenues
OTT: Revenues grown $17 billion on 2019

Pay TV subscribers topped one billion worldwide by the end up 2018, up 26 million during the year, according to Digital TV Research.

IPTV added 42 million subscribers in 2018 alone to take its total to 257 million, overtaking pay satellite TV in 2018, according to the analyst firm’s Pay TV Databook.

Satellite TV and pay DTT grew by 2 million and 1 million subscribers respectively in 2018. Digital cable TV added 7 million subs, but analogue cable TV shed 16 million subs – meaning a net loss for cable.

Overall, cable TV accounted for half of all pay TV subscribers in 2018, but this has seen a significant fall from 2010, when it made up three-quarters of all subscribers.

Global OTT revenues grew by $17 billion in 2018, reaching $68 billion by the end of the year.

This was up from $51 billion in 2017, and almost double the $38 billion of revenues recorded in 2016, according to the analyst’s OTT TV and Video Databook study.

The study looked at the state of the OTT and video markets in 138 countries, finding that OTT revenues topped $1 billion in 10 countries last year.

SVOD, which became the largest OTT revenue source in 2014 when it surpassed AVOD, had around a 53% of share of the overall revenue in 2018 at $36 billion, up $11 billion on the previous year. AVOD revenues grew by $5 billion to hit $22 billion.

Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV Research, said: “The US added $6.5 billion in revenues in 2018, with China up by $3.6 billion. Therefore, the US and China were together responsible for more than half the world’s additional revenues in 2018.”

The OTT TV and Video Databook study was among a number of reports released by Digital TV Research this month. In its SVOD Databook, it revealed that gross SVOD subscriptions increased 38% in 2018 to hit a total of 508 million. The net subscriber count was measured at 357 million -up 31%.

The report found that eight countries had more than 10 million SVOD subscriptions by the end of last year, providing 80% of the global today.

The article was first published here.

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