Digital TV Research has issued forecasts for the North American pay TV and over-the-top (OTT) TV and video markets through 2025. The forecasts predict declines for traditional pay TV and gains for OTT.
The research house expects the number of U.S. OTT subscription video on demand (SVOD) subscriptions to climb from 199 million in 2019 to 307 million by 2025.
Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV Research, said: "The average SVOD household will pay for 3.28 SVOD platforms by 2025, up from 2.28 at end-2019. So the average SVOD home will add one subscription between 2019 and 2025. A dozen platforms will have more than 5 million paying subscribers by 2025 - revealing just how far ahead in terms of choice the U.S. market is compared with the rest of the world. Growth for established players such as Netflix and Hulu will be muted due to intense competition from younger rivals such as Disney+, Peacock and the augmented CBS All Access."
In the pay TV arena, Digital TV Research says pay TV revenues in Canada and the United States peaked in 2015 at $112 billion. The research house forecasts that revenues will fall by $50 billion to $62 billion in 2025.
Revenues are expected to drop across the board. Cable revenues are expected to decline by $22 billion - $3 billion less from analog cable and $19 billion lower for digital cable. Satellite TV is expected to fall by $21 billion and IPTV to drop by $7 billion.
Murray said, "The loss of 42 million pay TV subscribers between 2010 and 2025 is mostly responsible for this decline."