Global TV revenues hit £244bn in 2014, up 5% year on year, as growing hunger for subscription services and growth in advertising boosted the market, Ofcom research has found.
Subscription services such as Sky were the main driver of growth, rising 5.4% to account for £125bn, just over half of the total. Ad revenue also increased significantly, by 5.3%, but income from public funding such as TV licensing grew more slowly at a rate of 1.7%.
Online TV, ranging from long-form services such as Netflix to short-form video of the kind found on YouTube, also grew rapidly, though remains small compared to more established ways of viewing. In the UK, the growth of Netflix and Amazon Prime increased revenues for online video by £278m to £908m. However, the market remains small compared with the US, where revenues are now well in excess of £6bn.
Ofcom’s research – which provides global data as well as in depth analysis on a trends and statistics from a range of countries – shows that UK viewers are among the biggest consumers of TV.
Each person in the UK generated an average of £216 in TV revenue in 2014, making them the third most valuable viewers in world after those in the US and Germany. The figure was up by £7.07 in 2014 as a result of rises in money spent on subscriptions and growth in TV advertising. The US saw an even bigger rise, equivalent to more than £10, again driven by subscriptions and advertising.
German TV revenue also rose, in part due to an increase in revenue from public coffers. The largest single source of German TV revenue is public funding, accounting for £113 per person, compared with £58 in the UK.
However, public funding fell in five of the 18 countries surveyed, a trend which Ofcom said was significant, with the Netherlands recording the biggest drop of £3.10. It rose in just three countries, by 50p or less per person in Sweden and Japan, and by £1.70 in Germany.
