Video streaming to surpass traditional pay-TV global revenues in 2025

by Thinus Ferreira

According to a new industry research report 2025 will be the year in which the revenue from video streaming will overtake the annual revenue globally of traditional pay-TV.

According to Omdia, a global analyst and advisory firm, 2025 will be the first year in which video streaming at $213 billion will outearn traditional pay-TV with $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 less 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."