PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts over-the-top video revenue, which grew 15.2% in 2017 to $20.1B, will rise 12.2% this year and reach $30.6B by 2022
Mike Farrell / Multichannel News :
Context & Ripple Effects
PricewaterhouseCoopers' 2018 outlook put OTT video on a double-digit trajectory — 15.2% growth to $20.1B in 2017, another 12.2% this year, and $30.6B by 2022 — with international expansion and original content named as the engines. It was one of the early forecasts treating streaming as a durable revenue category rather than a cable add-on.
The subsequent record complicates the curve: by 2022 PwC itself was reporting US subscription streaming revenue of $25.32B with growth slowing to 13% from 19.5% the year before (its own follow-up report), while Asia's online video market had already passed $30B in 2020 as subscriptions overtook advertising there (the Asia crossover study).
First-order effects
- Streamers and their investors get a benchmark for capital allocation: PwC's numbers justify continued heavy original-content and international rollout spending through 2022.
- Pay-TV distributors reading the same forecast see the revenue pool migrating toward over-the-top services, sharpening the urgency of their own streaming launches.
Second-order effects
- Content owners gain leverage as multiple OTT buyers chase originals to capture the projected growth, pushing up licensing and production costs across the market.
- Advertisers begin shifting budgets toward digital video as the OTT audience scales — a shift later visible in IAB/PwC data showing digital video ads at $78B in 2025 (the 2025 digital ad tally).
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, streaming becomes the primary funding engine for video content: Ampere's projections show streamers outspending commercial broadcasters and crossing $100B in annual content spend (Ampere's content-spend forecast).
- Growth-rate deceleration — already evident in the 2022 figures — points to a maturing subscription market where competition shifts from subscriber acquisition to pricing tiers and ad-supported models.
The trend: Video economics are migrating from linear distribution to streaming platforms, with forecasters' growth curves flattening as the subscription market matures and content spend consolidates around streamers.