For the first time, traditional pay TV revenues fell in 2015. This is a consequence of recent years’ shift in viewing from traditional TV to online. This is a turning point, reports Mediavision in its’ annual industry report of the Swedish TV market.

The overall Swedish TV market had a turnover of SEK 21.5 billion in 2015, which is a weak growth of 2.4 percent compared to 2014. The majority of the industry’s revenues came from households and consumers, paying for different TV packages and for Public Service.

The households’ TV subscriptions from traditional pay TV operators, such as Boxer, Telia, Com Hem etc. generated SEK 9 billion in revenues in 2015. This is a decline of SEK 11 million compared to 2014 and is a turning point, as traditional pay TV has previously shown constant growth. At the same time, revenues from new forms of pay TV services, such as Netflix, HBO Nordic and Viaplay, are growing. According to Mediavision figures, online pay TV generated SEK 1.6 billion in revenues last year and thereby growing with more than 400 million compared to 2014.

– The trend has clearly changed and standard pay TV providers are losing their ability to compete with new, internet-based services. Previously, they have kept their foothold through clever bundling and pricing. What we see now, is the inevitable consequence of the digital shift on revenues, says Marie Nilsson, CEO of Mediavision. Traditional pay TV providers will continue to play an important role in the market, but as in many other media sectors, effects of digitization are becoming clearer and clearer.

Press release April 2016