Pay-TV Market

Global Pay-TV Market Size (2024 to 2029)

The global Pay-TV market is predicted to reach USD 193.51 billion in 2024 and USD 208.46 billion by 2029, growing at a CAGR of 1.5% during the forecast period. The growing demand among consumers for higher-quality content with higher picture resolution is providing the market with exciting growth opportunities.

A customer subscription-based television broadcasting service is referred to as pay television (TV). It's commonly accessed by a cable, satellite, or internet protocol (IP) TV, with the viewer leasing a proprietary coaxial cable or satellite dish network set-top box and subscribing to packaged programming. To avoid service theft, each set-top box is equipped with encrypted signals. It offers interactive services such as TV shopping, gaming, video-on-demand, and multi-room charging in addition to television channels. It also provides a single convergent stack for end-to-end solutions that include client administration, invoicing, payment, and ordering features, as well as great cost-effectiveness, scalability, and operational transparency.

MARKET DRIVERS

Data analytics has provided insights into public tastes and the types of material that are likely to be popular. As a result, other channels have popped up to appeal to specific audiences. Furthermore, the television industry is placing a premium on reality shows because they are more profitable in terms of advertising. The most effective driver in the PayTV market is the customer base's desire to gain access to these channels to watch their favourite shows, which is the most effective driver in the PayTV market. Furthermore, due to sports tournaments, seasonal subscriptions are increasing, and some PayTV suppliers provide season bundles and then keep those clients. Customers with personalised subscriptions can save money on channels they don't watch. It's a feature that also helps suppliers in the PayTV market. These subscriptions also enable the advertising sector and brands to position their messages on platforms from which target audiences can be reached.

The audience gets a better watching experience when the video is in high definition or HD. However, because HD material is not available through cable networks, users are turning to satellite PayTV, which offers a wide range of HD channels, allowing viewers to enjoy their favourite TV series and movies in high definition. Customers' preferences for HD content are expanding, thus the TV industry will eventually transcend to HD content.

While subscriber analytics tools allow providers to gauge demand for content, the company is also growing by word of mouth. In the entertainment sector, user-generated subscriptions and unobtrusive marketing are disruptive trends, and vendors are capitalising on them. PayTV providers are coming up with innovative marketing strategies, such as offering discounts to existing customers in exchange for referring prospective subscribers. This tendency is expected to increase the size of the PayTV market in the future.

MARKET RESTRAINTS

The primary challenge in the PayTV business is the client base deviation created by OTT media providers, which has resulted in a significant drop in vendor revenues. Mergers and acquisitions, on the other hand, are expected to alleviate the situation. Piracy is another issue that has been prolonging market losses, and these losses are irreversible.

Impact of COVID-19 on the Global Pay-TV Market

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a favourable impact on the pay-TV business. COVID-19 has seen a significant increase in television viewership. The current tendency is for people to watch news and children's channels. People have been compelled to stay at home because of the pandemic, which has increased television viewing. As a result of the significant number of individuals staying at home, cord-cutting is expected to take longer than usual. However, the increase in pay-TV viewership is expected to be temporary, and with the growing streaming business, pay-TV viewership is expected to fall significantly.

REPORT COVERAGE

SEGMENTAL ANALYSIS

Global Pay-TV Market Analysis By Technology

The satellite TV segment had the biggest revenue share, with 50.00 per cent. The growing need for newer networks, bonus features, and more sophisticated channels is encouraging service providers to expand their service offerings. The present trend of watching live broadcasts of programming such as news and sporting events is continuing to drive satellite TV usage. Furthermore, rising customer demand for high-quality viewing experiences such as 4K and Ultra HD (UHD) picture quality, as well as satellite TV service providers' ability to offer these services without bandwidth limits, are boosting the segment's growth.

Owing to increased customer desire for access to and experience unbundled packages, the cable TV category also grabbed a large revenue share in 2020. Despite gaining a sizable market share, the future of cable TV providers does not appear bright. A growing number of cord-cutters have decided to forego paying for television entirely. The issue is that, instead of traditional cable TV subscriptions, an increasing percentage of families are now obtaining access to movies through other platforms.

REGIONAL ANALYSIS

North America dominated with a revenue share of 39.67%. Despite a higher revenue share, the regional market is declining due to the growing adoption of internet-enabled media and the introduction of OTT platforms. Because of the considerable increase in cord-cutting, service providers are being urged to convert their service offerings to online content delivery to acquire a larger market share of customers. Furthermore, the adoption of advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to evaluate users' viewing habits and make personalised recommendations is encouraging viewers to switch to OTT platforms. Furthermore, since profit margins in supplying bundled packages have decreased over time, service providers have shied away from these business models, thereby harming industry growth.

In terms of revenue, the Asia Pacific area accounted for more than a quarter of all revenue, Because of the quick acceptance of the online subscription business model among customers, IPTV has been the key growth engine for the region. Furthermore, the growing use of pay television in rural homes in countries like China, India, and Indonesia has boosted the industry's total growth.

According to research, India's pay-TV business will expand by 7%, reaching total revenue of USD 12.3 billion during the forecast period. Furthermore, by 2029, over 96 per cent of India's pay-TV homes will be digitalized, bringing the total number of pay-TV subscribers to 13.4 crores.

The number of European pay-TV subscribers will drop by 4 million to 103 million. IPTV is the most popular pay-TV platform among customers, indicating the importance of high-speed broadband for homes. IPTV will gain 4 million customers to reach 47 million, while pay satellite TV will lose 5 million members to 18 million and cable will lose 2 million subscribers to 37 million. The focus of European operators has changed from premium television to high-speed broadband distribution. This is especially true in Denmark and Italy, which are at different ends of the pay-TV penetration spectrum, with most operators prioritising OTT platforms over traditional pay-TV platforms. pay-TV revenues will drop by $4 billion, or 15%, to USD 23 billion. The number of pay-TV subscribers will fall by 4%, resulting in a 4% drop in income, revealing lower TV ARPUs and less attention on TV from the operators.

Over 17 million new pay-TV subscribers will be added, bringing the total to more than 50 million. With 11 million members, Nigeria would be the largest single country, followed by South Africa, which will add another 9 million.

The number of pay-TV subscribers in Latin America reached a high of 72.2 million. The total had dropped to 64.6 million. A slight increase is projected, with a total of 65.1 million subscribers during the forecast period. Despite having half as many TV households as Brazil, Mexico has more pay-TV customers. When it had 20.9 million customers, Mexico has lost subscribers. Mexico's 20 million subscriber threshold will not be broken again.

KEY PLAYERS IN THE GLOBAL PAY-TV MARKET

• Airtel Digital TV

• DirecTV

• DISH Network Corp

• Dish TV India Ltd

• Foxtel

• Rostelecom

• Tata Sky

• Spectrum

• AT&T

• Verizon

• Comcast Corp

Comcast Corp is the largest Pay-TV provider in the world with 19.36 million subscribers.

RECENT HAPPENINGS IN THE GLOBAL PAY-TV MARKET

• Bharti Airtel, India's largest telecom company, announced on 19th October 2021 the development of a solution that will assist conventional broadcasters and video companies in digitising their businesses and offering over-the-top (OTT) streaming content. This communications-platform-as-a-service (CPaaS) product, known as Airtel IQ Video, is part of the Airtel IQ cloud platform, which allows businesses to connect a phone, video, and messaging to their existing business operations through application programme interfaces (APIs). Airtel IQ Video will be compatible with all of Airtel's data centre offerings, as well as Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services.

• DirecTV Stream, which was previously known as AT&T TV, AT&T Now, and DirecTV Now, discreetly revised its regulations in October 2021, allowing most new customers to cancel service only through an online chat while existing customers must call a customer support hotline to cancel. Only some legacy subscribers and customers in New York and California, whose state rules need fewer hoops to walk through, can cancel easily online.

• Foxtel, an Australian pay-TV provider, announced in October 2021 that Sky Glass is the company's first attempt at creating a smart TV line. The streaming-only service eliminates the need for a set-top box or satellite, giving users access to the full Sky experience right on their UHD TV.

• Under Tata Sky India, Skyline Communications is extending its award-winning DataMiner platform. Tata Sky's Direct-to-Home (DTH) operations are still entirely managed by DataMiner, but now across a broader range of data sources. (Source:

DETAILED SEGMENTATION OF THE GLOBAL PAY-TV MARKET INCLUDED IN THIS REPORT

This research report on the global pay-tv market has been segmented and sub-segmented based on the technology, and region. 

By Technology

• Cable TV

• Satellite TV

• IPTV

By Region

• North America
• Latin America
• Europe
• Asia Pacific
• Middle East & Africa