Video streaming services are overtaking cable TV subscriptions worldwide
For the first time, more people worldwide subscribe to a video streaming service than a cable TV subscription. This is mainly due to an increase in the number of users with a streaming subscription. Cable television does bring in more money than the streaming services.
That’s according to figures from an annual report from the MPAA. In 2018, there were 613.3 million subscriptions worldwide for services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime. That is 27 percent more than in 2017. Over the same period, the amount of cable TV subscriptions decreased slightly by 2 percent. Worldwide, 556 million people had such a subscription.
These figures do not mean that more people now have a streaming subscription than one for TV. Satellite and iptv together account for about 500 million subscriptions. In total, there are therefore more than a billion TV subscriptions worldwide. It is also noticeable that, although the number of cable television subscriptions is falling, the share of iptv is rising faster than cable is falling. Yet the number of subscriptions to video streaming services is growing faster than the number of subscriptions for television. It is therefore not inconceivable that in a few years’ time there will be more subscriptions for services such as Netflix than for television.
The numbers to which the MPAA investigation refers
What is also striking is how little the streaming services convert compared to cable. Worldwide, cable TV was worth about 100 billion euros, about 8 billion euros more than the year before. Video streaming services did not even yield 35 billion euros over the same period.
The numbers to which the MPAA investigation refers
The MPAA’s report covers the revenue of the global and US TV and film industries. The report also notes that for the first time consumers are spending more on digital TV series and movies than on physical products or the cinema.
Globally, 44 percent of spending went to physical products. These can be streaming services, but films that are purchased digitally, for example, are also included. Only 14 percent of the money went to physical products like DVDs. 42 percent of the money went to the cinema. In total, around 85.6 billion euros was spent worldwide on the TV and film market. Sport is not included, which means that the figures for the TV and film industry are lower. Sports are included in the comparison between video streaming services and the various TV subscriptions.