According to a new industry research report, 2025 will be the year in which video streaming revenue will overtake traditional pay-TV’s global annual revenue.
According to Omdia, a global analyst and advisory firm, 2025 will be the first year in which video streaming at US$213 billion will outearn traditional pay-TV with US$188 billion.
More revenue from and for video streaming services will come from mimicking what traditional TV and pay-TV have been doing for decades: advertising, pricing, and even programming.
As video streaming services from Netflix to Disney+, Amazon Prime Video and others have introduced ad-tiers, making subscribers pay to watch and pay to watch fewer ads, streamers “are beginning to look like pay-TV 2.0,” says Tony Gunnarsson, senior principal analyst at Omdia.
Video streaming is also growing in another trend: “Linearisation” and almost “broadcasting” like traditional television with a weekly “schedule”.
In Omdia’s latest 2025 Trends to Watch report, the company declares the so-called “streaming wars” over, saying advertising is in and that the bundling of standalone subscription video-on-demand (SVoD) bundles will be what comes next.
“Until streaming looks and feels like pay-TV used to be, it will be cut-throat for everyone.”
