On-demand on course to reach $6 billion revenues

Revenues from on-demand programmes and films are forecast to hit $6 billion by 2018, according to new figures from Digital TV Research.

In 2012, on-demand created revenues of $4.2 billion, led by the USA and Italy, however the results indicate even stronger growth over the next five years.

The USA is expected to remain at the top of the 100 countries included in the forecast, with the UK slipping from fourth in 2012 to fifth in 2018, behind China, Italy and Japan.

Chinese on-demand revenues will more than double over the measurement period and Indian revenues more than triple.

“On-demand TV generated just 2.3% of the US$184 billion total pay TV revenues in 2012,” said report author Simon Murray.

“However, the on-demand proportion will grow to 2.9% of the US$203 billion total in 2018. Growth in on-demand TV revenues in some mature markets will not be enough to compensate for falling subscription revenues.”

Satellite on-demand revenues are predicted to rise by 22% over the same period to reach just short of $2 billion.

It is thought that most of the digital terrestrial on-demand revenues will come from Western Europe – principally Italy.