UK to lose 2.1m pay-TV subscribers as cord-cutting hits Western Europe
The UK is predicted to lose 2.1m pay-TV subscribers between 2023 and 2029.
That is according to the latest report from Digital TV Research that predicts Western Europe as a whole will lose nearly 9m pay-TV subscribers by 2029, or around 8% of the market.
Germany is expected to lose 2.7m subscribers during the time frame — the highest in Western Europe. Italy and France are expected to lose 1.5m million and 1.1m respectively.
The report notes that this is “nowhere near as bad” as cord-cutting in the US, where pay-TV penetration is expected to drop five percentage points to 53% by 2029.
“Pay satellite TV will be the biggest loser because most direct-to-home platforms do not offer broadband access,” said Simon Murray, Digital TV Research’s principal analyst. “This is not true of Sky, which wants to convert its satellite TV subscribers to its streaming platforms.”
Murray, who is speaking on Wednesday at Connected TV World Summit on the topic of growth in the free ad-supported TV market, expects Sky to lose 1.8m subscriptions in the UK and 5m in total in its five Western Europe territories by 2029.
Sky has been contacted for comment.
The report notes that internet protocol TV is expected to gain 1m subscribers in the region by 2029, as pay satellite TV is predicted to decline by 6.4m, pay digital terrestrial television by 800,000 and cable by 2.4m during that period.