According to Forrester Research Telcos' IPTV Subscribers Will Barely Surpass 2 Million By 2009 -- "Telcos have jumped on the TV bandwagon, but it won't be an easy ride. Entering the market means spending billions in network upgrades, rolling out services with unproven IPTV platforms, and navigating the difficult content acquisition process. IPTV promises great content selection, more interactivity, and enhanced TV features, such as faster channel changing. But given telcos' lame track record with selling new services like DSL, we expect their TV efforts to get off to a slow start. With limited consumer interest in triple play and difficulty in creating product differentiation, telcos will remove profit from the TV services market as they launch price wars to grab consumers."
The global streaming industry has spent the better part of a decade chasing subscriber counts as the primary metric of success. That era is now formally over. New market data from Omdia confirms that the industry has crossed a decisive threshold; one that shifts the competitive playing field from growth-at-all-costs to monetization discipline. For senior executives navigating media, advertising, and technology strategy, the implications extend well beyond entertainment. A Historic Revenue Crossover Online video revenue increased 13.5 percent to $176 billion in 2025, while pay-TV revenue declined 4 percent to $170 billion; marking the first time in the industry's history that streaming has surpassed legacy pay-TV in revenue terms. This is not a rounding error or a statistical artifact; it represents the culmination of more than a decade of structural disruption to the traditional broadcast and cable TV model. Global subscriptions to online video services reached 2.24 billion by the ...