Europe's shifting TV powerplay

Pay TV is dead; long live pay TV: Europe's shifting TV powerplays

Contributors

John-Paul O’Sullivan, Research Analyst - S&P Global Market Intelligence
Mohammed Hamza, Principal research analyst - S&P Global Market Intelligence
Natalie Colakides, Associate research analyst - S&P Global Market Intelligence

European pay TV lost over 2 million subscribers from 2018 to 2020, according to Kagan estimates. Operators are increasingly investing in broadband and mobile networks and convergent bundle offers, while pay TV becomes a value-added service where content aggregation and user experience are more essential versus content rights and developing their own hardware and software.

The consolidation of TV networks and consumers' accelerated transition to streaming services has forced a rethink from public service broadcasters and commercial TV channel groups on the continent, who now see the global video market as a greater concern than local competition.

10 Key Takeaways:

1. Multichannel penetration is forecast to fall from its peak of 62.5% in 2017 to 57.7% by 2029.

2. Dynamics of bundling are changing.

3. There is a strategic shift to building out fiber and 5G connectivity as a priority.

4. Consumers' shift to nonlinear viewing.

5. Increased integration of OTT services into pay TV platforms.

6. Third-party TV platforms — e.g., Android TV and Apple TV — gaining in popularity.

7. Global streaming forcing legacy broadcasting in Western Europe to consolidate.

8. OTT partnerships likely outside of "Big 3" streamers.

9. Pay TV platforms becoming content "curators."

10. Industry enters new territory for pricing.

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Global Multichannel is a service of Kagan, a media research group within S&P Global Market Intelligence's TMT offering. This article was published by S&P Global Market Intelligence and not by S&P Global Ratings, which is a separately managed division of S&P Global.