IPTV will be bigger than digital cable, globally, by 2024
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John Moulding
| 10 October 2023
5 IPTV will be bigger than digital cable globally by 2024

IPTV will become the leading delivery mechanism for Pay TV globally next year, when it overtakes digital cable based on subscriber homes. The latest figures from Digital TV Research show that IPTV will have 412 million subs by 2029 from a total of nearly 1bn.

Giving the company’s global Pay TV forecasts for 2023-2029, Simon Murray, Principal Analyst at Digital TV Research, said: “IPTV is the Pay TV winner and will add 36 million subscribers [in that period].”

IPTV overtook pay satellite TV subscribers in 2018 enroute to its eventual No.1 spot. The new Digital TV Research figures show that globally, Pay TV numbers are fairly stable. Penetration will reach 56% of TV households by end-2023 and will fall slightly to 54% by end-2029.

The 2029 subscriber total, for figures that cover 138 countries, will be just under 1 billion. 82 countries will add pay TV subscribers and 56 countries will lose subscribers. The U.S. will see the biggest subscriber decline – down by 10 million in the period.