North American Pay TV Subscriber Losses to Slow

London, UK, February 22, 2021--The number of pay TV subscribers in Canada and the US will fall by 43 million from 116 million in the peak year of 2010 to 74 million in 2026. The US will lose 41 million, with Canada down by nearly 2 million according to new research from Digital TV Research.

The number of pay TV subscribers plummeted by 27 million between 2010 and 2020, down by 6 million in both 2019 and 2020. Pay TV penetration will drop from 90.5% in 2010 to 53.6% by 2026.

Simon Murray, Principal Analyst at Digital TV Research, said: “The worst of the cord-cutting is over. Declines will be lower from 2021, falling by 16 million in total between 2020 and 2026. “Only” 5 million digital cable TV subscribers will be lost. Satellite TV will fall by 7.5 million and IPTV by 3.4 million subscribers.” Pay TV revenues peaked in 2015 at US$ 111 billion. Revenues will fall by US$ 49 billion to US$ 62 billion in 2026.