Europe will have 262 million TV subscriptions by the end of 2018; up from 205 million at end-2015. Western Europe has had the most growth.
SVOD subscriptions will triple between 2015 and 2018 to 76 million, but traditional pay TV will only add 8 million subscribers to total 186 million. This means that SVOD’s share of the total will climb from 13% to 29% between 2015 and 2018.
Simon Murray, Principal Analyst at Digital TV Research, said: “SVOD’s share of revenues will double over this period to 28% in 2018. Including AVOD, this translates to $14 billion; up from $6 billion in 2015. Pay TV revenues will be flat at $36 billion. Therefore, total revenues will reach $50 billion in 2018; up by $7.7 billion on 2015.”
These figures are gross subscriptions. One household can have more than one subscription. For example, a household subscribing to pay satellite TV and Netflix would be counted as two subscriptions. The European TV Databook report provides forecasts for paying subscriptions across 40 countries.