Subscription TV revenue overtakes adverts

Online TV is growing in popularity
Online TV is growing in popularity

In the TV world, the pound (or dollar or rouble or whatever) is king, and it seems that in the future we'll be paying for what we want to watch rather than just sitting through adverts.

The Global Communications Market research has shown that the UK TV industry garners £172 per person, which includes £71 from subscription based models and only £58 from advertising.

Shifting views

The Guardian is also reporting that Ofcom has also conducted research into the subject, and has found that the advertising model, one that has allowed channels to compete with the public-funded BBC, is starting to age, especially with the growing number of online viewers.

"Advertising is increasingly shifting online. In the UK, online advertising accounted for £1 in every £5 of advertising (19 per cent) - the highest among the countries surveyed and up by a third in 2006," it said.

The BBC is just one of a number of broadcasters looking to the online model for showing off its TV wares, with the news that BBC One and BBC Two will be coming online in the near future.

With the likes of Sky and Virgin Media's viewing figures continuing to grow, it seems likely we'll have to pay to watch all TV in the future (although perhaps not the Beeb...)

Gareth Beavis
Formerly Global Editor in Chief


Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grown with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.