Global television subscription revenues peaked at over $200 billion in 2016 but are forecast to fall to just over $150 billion in 2025, despite a rise in the total number of subscribers. The number of television subscribers passed a billion in 2018 and is forecast to increase by 34 million between 2019 and 2025 to reach 1.06 billion, with half of them in China and India.
Talk about television subscriptions is dominated by discussion of the United States, which is by far the most valuable market, accounting for almost 45% of global television subscription revenue in 2020. Television subscription revenues peaked there in 2015, at $105 billion. Digital TV Research forecasts that will drop from almost $80 billion in 2020 to $56 billion in 2025. In Canada it is forecast to fall from $5.7 billion in 2020 to $5.1 billion in 2025.
The United Kingdom television subscription market was worth $6.6 billion in 2019 but that is forecast to fall from $6.3 billion in 2020 to $5.8 billion in 2025.
China is expected to have 328 million television subscribers by the end of 2025, but subscription revenue is forecast to fall from $9.5 billion in 2019 to $9.4 billion in 2020 and $9.3 billion in 2025.
India is forecast to have 183 million television subscribers in 2025. Television subscription revenue in India is forecast to increase from $5.2 billion in 2019 to $5.4 billion in 2020 and nearly $6 billion in 2025, overtaking the United Kingdom in terms of television subscription revenue.
These five markets, the United States, China, India, the United Kingdom, and Canada, will connectively account for 54% of global television subscription revenues by 2025, down from 62% in 2019.
Between 2020 and 2025, television subscription revenues across these top five markets are forecast to contract by 22%, while revenues in the rest of the world will decline by 1.8%.
The majority of the fall in television subscription revenues will be accounted for by the decline in the United States.
For instance, subscription video revenue in the United States is forecast to rise by 42% from 2020 to 2025 to $42 billion, compensating for the expected loss in traditional television subscriptions, although some of that income will be distributed to new players, like Netflix.
The the Pay TV Forecasts Update is available from Digital TV Research, providing profiles for the 20 countries by television subscriptions.