Digital Video Forecast and Trends Q1 2025

Subscriptions Exceed Advertising Revenues for Streaming Services and Linear TV

Report by Ross Benes  | Jan 22, 2025
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Executive Summary
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Table of Contents
Executive Summary
Streaming services now receive more subscription revenues than traditional TV
Sources
Media Gallery
About This Report
This year, streaming services will finally earn more than traditional TV in subscription revenues.
Topics
Digital Video
United States
Table of Contents
Executive Summary
Streaming services now receive more subscription revenues than traditional TV
Sources
Media Gallery

Cord-cutting, bundling, and price increases are all contributing to streaming services increasing their subscription revenues. While advertising is receiving growing attention, subscriptions still account for most streaming revenues.

Key Question: How do streaming services' subscription revenues stack up compared with their advertising revenues?

Traditional TV Now Accounts for Less Than Half of Video Subscription Revenues (% of US video subscription revenues, by video distribution method, 2021-2027)
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Key Stat: Traditional pay TV’s share of total video subscription revenues will shrink from 66.0% in 2021 to 36.1% in 2027.

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Table of Contents

  1. Executive Summary
  2. Streaming services now receive more subscription revenues than traditional TV
  1. Sources
  2. Media Gallery

    Charts in This Report

    Traditional TV Now Accounts for Less Than Half of Video Subscription Revenues (% of US video subscription revenues, by video distribution method, 2021-2027)Streaming Price Increases Have Greatly Outpaced Inflation and Pay TV Increases Since 2023 (% change YoY in US consumer price index and price of pay TV vs. streaming video subscriptions, 2020-2024)
    It's Becoming Far More Expensive to Avoid Ads on Streaming Services (dollars in US monthly cost of cheapest ad-free video streaming plan, by platform, 2020–2024)Top 10 Countries Worldwide, Ranked by Subscription OTT Video Service Penetration, 2025 (% of internet users)
    4 of the Top 10 US Pay TV Providers Are Digital Services (top 10 US pay TV providers, ranked by millions of subscribers, Q2 2024)Digital Pay TV Will Replace Traditional TV for Only About a Third of Cord-Cutting Households in 2028 (millions of US digital pay TV households vs. change in traditional pay TV households, 2015-2028)
    Subscriptions Will Account for Almost Two-Thirds of Streaming Revenues in 2025 (billions of US OTT video subscription* vs. connected TV (CTV) ad revenues**, 2023-2027)Subscriptions Will Account for About Three-Fifths of Linear TV Revenues (billions of US total pay TV subscription* vs. linear TV ad revenues**, 2023-2027)

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    authors

    Ross Benes

    Contributors

    Rahul Chadha
    Director, Report Editing
    Vladimir de Leon
    Chart Editor
    Vivian Dong
    Forecasting Analyst
    Penelope Lin
    Director, Data Visualization
    Emman Velasco
    Chart Editor
    Max Willens
    Yoram Wurmser
    Principal Analyst
    Ali Young
    Senior Copy Editor