Traditional TV Cord-Cutting Is Global Trend

Cord-cutting isn’t just restricted to traditional U.S. pay TV providers -- total pay TV subscribers are down in 13 other countries/territories.

IHS Markit, a consumer researcher, says declines in pay TV subscribers occurred in 2017 in Brazil, Mexico, Hong Kong, Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Israel, Venezuela and Ireland.

The U.S. still has the biggest drop, sinking 3.3 million.

Brazil was down 617,000; Mexico, 192,000; Hong Kong, 166,000; Canada, 150,000; Sweden, 144,000; Denmark, 106,000; Japan, 78,000; New Zealand, 61,000; Norway, 50,000; Singapore, 45,000; Israel, 40,000; Venezuela, 16,000; and Ireland, 3,000.

The biggest percentage decline was in Venezuela -- over 30%. Brazil and Mexico were next at around 6%, with Japan sinking 5%.

At the same time, IHS Markit estimates cover the next four years: 409 million OTT video subscriptions will be added worldwide with almost two-thirds coming from Asia Pacific.

advertisement

advertisement

Although there were subscriber losses, only six of the 14 top markets had declines in pay TV revenue.

In eight countries — the U.S., Brazil, Mexico, Sweden, Japan, New Zealand, Norway and Venezuela — pay TV companies either up-sold customers with new products and/or generated existing pay TV package price increases.

IHS Markit says further cord-cutting will gain steam in North America -- where cord-cutting has seen its biggest effect. It projects a net decline of 8.5 million pay TV subscribers from 2018 through 2022. Between 2012 and 2017, pay TV subscriptions fell by 7.1 million.

In North America, when including Netflix and all other new digital services, more than 26 million OTT subscriptions were added in 2017.

1 comment about "Traditional TV Cord-Cutting Is Global Trend".
Check to receive email when comments are posted.
  1. Bill Shane from Eastlan Ratings, May 2, 2018 at 1:44 p.m.

    I pay $200 a month for the second to the cheapest TV cable package plus internet and phone service which I never use. I always keep a landline in case the power goes out or the cable disappears for a while because some drunken nut wipe out a phone pole.  And Comcast wonders why people are cord cutting?  What leaves me scratching my head is that Comcast doesn't seem to do Jack SH** about it like maybe lowering their prices or maybe offring a cheaper package that doesn't include sports stations.  I swear to God, ESPN has a lot to answer for when you look at how much your cable TV package cost.  Cord cutting is coming soon for me and I'm sure for hundreds of thousands of others as well. 

Next story loading loading..