There is even more bad news for pay television providers. Unlike 2017, subscribers signing up for cheaper online television bundles are starting to contract.
As media markets reach a consolidation fever pitch, three companies will emerge controlling nearly all content creation and distribution in the United States.
Television advertising sales in the U.S fell 8% to $61 billion in 2017 – the biggest slump in 20 years. Sales at cable networks dropped for the first time in a decade.
Walt Disney Co’s deal to buy film, television and international businesses from Murdoch’s Twenty-First Century Fox is valued around $40 per share, or $75B.
Only days apart, the UK’s largest satellite broadcaster, Sky, and the US’s biggest cable company, Comcast, announced plans to expand their services online.