The Rise of Streaming & IPTV: Why the World Stopped Watching Traditional TV

Something seismic happened to television in the last decade. Quietly at first, then all at once. The aerial on the roof, the satellite dish in the garden, the cable box under the screen — all of them are going the way of the video rental shop. In their place: a broadband connection, a smart device, and a subscription to something that streams whatever you want, whenever you want it, wherever you happen to be in the world.

This isn't a trend. It's a structural shift in how the world consumes entertainment — and the numbers behind it are extraordinary. This piece breaks down exactly what happened, why it happened, and what it means for viewers across the UK, US, Thailand, Southeast Asia and beyond.

The Collapse of Traditional TV

Terrestrial and cable television dominated entertainment for most of the 20th century. At its peak in the United States, cable TV reached around 105 million households. By 2025, that number had fallen to 68.7 million — a decline of more than a third in fifteen years. According to eMarketer, pay TV penetration is expected to drop to around 42% of US households by 2026, compared to 88% at cable's peak. The trajectory is unmistakable.

The cord-cutting numbers tell the story even more starkly. US pay-TV providers lost 5.9 million subscribers in 2024 alone — the largest single-year decline ever recorded. In the first three quarters of that year, an estimated 5.7 million cable subscribers had already dropped their subscriptions before Q4 had even begun, according to Forbes citing Nielsen data. For context, the total UK population is around 68 million. The US cable industry lost the equivalent of a mid-sized country's population from its subscriber base in a single year.

Who is cutting the cord — and why?

The demographics are striking. According to a July 2025 report by the Pew Research Center, only 16% of Americans aged 18–29 now subscribe to cable or satellite TV. Among 30–49 year olds, the figure is 23%. Even among 50–64 year olds, less than half (44%) still subscribe. The only demographic still firmly attached to traditional pay TV is the over-65s, at 64% — and that cohort is shrinking as a share of the overall viewing population.

Cost is the primary driver. The average US cable bill now exceeds $100 per month in many regions, and the value proposition has eroded dramatically as premium content migrated to streaming platforms. One in five cord-cutters in a 2024 Statista survey said they simply no longer needed cable to watch what they were interested in. The content had left the building.

The historic milestone: streaming overtakes cable

In May 2025, for the first time ever, streaming accounted for 44.8% of total US TV viewership — overtaking the combined share of cable (24.1%) and broadcast (20.1%), according to Nielsen's The Gauge data. It was a watershed moment that had been coming for years but, when it arrived, represented a genuine inflection point in television history. By late 2025, according to Nielsen's updated tracking, streaming had pushed its share further to 47.5% of all TV usage, with cable falling to 20.2%.

The picture in the UK is broadly similar. Ofcom's annual media reports have tracked a consistent decline in traditional linear TV viewing among under-35s, with streaming now accounting for the majority of viewing time in that demographic. The BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 — the pillars of British broadcasting for generations — have all been forced to invest heavily in their own streaming platforms (iPlayer, ITVX, Channel 4 streaming) or risk irrelevance.

The Streaming Revolution — How It Happened

Netflix launched its streaming service in 2007. It took most of the media industry a decade to take it seriously. By then, it was too late.

As of 2026, Netflix has 325 million paid subscribers globally — a figure confirmed in its Q4 2025 SEC filings — making it the most subscribed entertainment service in human history. Its 2025 revenue reached $45.18 billion, a 15.84% year-over-year increase. Amazon Prime Video sits second with approximately 200–230 million global users. Disney's combined streaming portfolio, including Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+, reaches 219.8 million subscriptions. Max (formerly HBO Max) reached 128 million global subscribers by November 2025. Paramount+ confirmed 79.1 million global subscribers in the same period.

In total, the global streaming market now counts approximately 1.8 billion active subscriptions worldwide, generating over $100 billion in annual revenue (WIPO, 2026). Fortune Business Insights values the total global video streaming market at $969.56 billion in 2026 — projected to reach $3.39 trillion by 2034. For context, that is larger than the GDP of most countries on earth.

Why did streaming win so decisively?

Three forces drove the shift: content, convenience, and cost. Streaming platforms invested aggressively in original programming — Netflix alone now spends more on content annually than the entire global box office generates in ticket revenue. They offered on-demand access across every device imaginable, removing the tyranny of the schedule. And they came in at a price point that, initially at least, was dramatically cheaper than a cable package.

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated everything. With cinemas closed and live sport suspended in 2020, streaming subscriptions surged globally in a way that might otherwise have taken five more years. Many of those subscribers never returned to their old habits.

The shift in advertising money

Where viewers go, advertising follows — and it has followed them decisively. Linear TV ad spending declined by 13% in 2025 alone, reaching approximately $51 billion in the US. Meanwhile, US connected TV (CTV) ad spending surpassed $32 billion in 2025 (eMarketer), growing at a rate that linear TV cannot match. By 2028, CTV ad spending is projected to account for nearly 50% of total TV advertising expenditure, on par with linear TV for the first time.

IPTV: The Engine Behind the Shift

Within the broader streaming revolution, Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) has emerged as the fastest-growing and most structurally significant segment. IPTV delivers television content via internet protocol networks — the same infrastructure that carries web browsing, email and everything else. Unlike traditional broadcast, it works on any internet-connected device, in any country, with any content from any source.

The market numbers are remarkable. The global IPTV market was valued at approximately $100–221 billion in 2026 (varying by research firm scope), with consistent projections of 14–17% compound annual growth rates through to 2034. Fortune Business Insights projects the market will reach $330 billion by 2034; IMARC Group projects $304.9 billion by the same year; Research and Markets estimates $421.53 billion by 2030. The variation reflects differing scope definitions, but every major research house agrees on the direction of travel: explosive, sustained growth.

The subscriber milestone of 2026

In 2026, IPTV will cross a historic threshold: for the first time, IPTV subscribers will officially surpass cable TV subscribers globally. The total IPTV subscriber base is projected to reach approximately 398 million by end of 2026, according to data compiled by Apprupt and industryresearch.biz. This represents a 159% increase from 2020 to 2025, accelerated by pandemic-driven viewing habit changes, cord-cutting, and the rollout of fiber-to-the-home infrastructure — global fiber lines surpassed 600 million by late 2025.

Asia-Pacific leads in subscriber volume, accounting for approximately 42–46% of global IPTV users, with China alone projected to have 226 million IPTV subscribers by 2026 across its three major telecoms operators (China Telecom, China Mobile, and China Unicom). India's fiber base crossed 35 million lines by mid-2025, supporting approximately 2 million new IPTV additions each month. North America leads in revenue terms, accounting for around 36–42% of global IPTV market value in 2025 depending on the research source.

Why IPTV specifically is winning

IPTV's advantage is flexibility. A single subscription can deliver thousands of live channels, tens of thousands of on-demand titles, and coverage of live sports events from any country — on a Firestick, Android box, Smart TV, phone or tablet. It bypasses the geographic restrictions that have frustrated international viewers for years. A British expat in Thailand can watch Premier League football. A Thai family in the US can follow Thai TV channels. A sports bar in Phuket can show every Premier League game simultaneously on multiple screens.

Enterprise IPTV — covering hotels, hospitality venues, bars and restaurants — is one of the fastest-growing segments, with a projected CAGR of approximately 16.8% through 2032 (PS Market Research). Hotels and villas across Southeast Asia, in particular, have adopted IPTV rapidly as guest expectations for international channel access have risen dramatically alongside the growth of international tourism.

Cinema: When Even the Big Screen Wasn't Enough

The decline of traditional television was mirrored — less dramatically but no less significantly — in the global cinema industry. In 2019, global box office revenues reached a peak of $42.3 billion. By 2024, that figure had fallen to $30.6 billion — a decline of roughly 28% in five years, and still approximately 22% below the pre-pandemic peak, according to data from WIPO and Gower Street Analytics.

The US domestic box office tells a similar story. Pre-pandemic, US cinema revenue stood at $11.7–11.8 billion annually (2018–19). In 2024, it generated $8.75 billion — a 3% decrease from 2023 and significantly below pre-pandemic levels, per AP News. PwC's most recent Global Entertainment & Media Outlook suggests full US cinema revenue recovery to pre-pandemic levels will not be achieved until 2030 at the earliest.

Why audiences stopped going to the cinema

The reasons are structural, not cyclical. Streaming platforms now release major films simultaneously with or shortly after theatrical runs. The theatrical exclusivity window — once 90 days, giving cinemas a crucial head start — has collapsed to as little as 30–45 days for many studio releases. The question audiences ask has changed from "when can I watch this?" to "why should I leave the house to watch this?"

The answer, increasingly, is that the blockbuster event film — where spectacle justifies the expense of a cinema ticket — remains viable. Everything else is heading to streaming first. Streaming platforms collectively invest more in content annually than the entire global box office generates ($42 billion vs $33 billion in 2025, per WIPO). The money has followed the audience.

Cinema admissions paint an even bleaker picture. Even PwC's optimistic forecast projects global admissions of 6.45 billion by 2028 — compared to 7.92 billion in 2019. That is 1.5 billion fewer visits per year to the cinema, permanently, even after a full recovery.

PPV movies: the bridge between cinema and streaming

Transactional video on demand (TVOD) — the pay-per-view model for individual films — reached $40.6 billion globally in 2024 and is forecast to hit $132.9 billion by 2035, according to market data cited by Fortune Business Insights. Premium video on demand (PVOD) releases — where studios charge a one-off rental fee to watch a film at home before it reaches subscription services — have become a permanent feature of distribution strategy. Disney, Universal, Warner Bros. and Sony all deployed PVOD extensively during the pandemic and have retained it as a revenue stream.

Sports, PPV and the Battle for Live Rights

If there is one domain where traditional TV held out longest against streaming, it was live sport. Sports rights were the last great moat around the linear TV castle — the reason sports fans maintained cable subscriptions long after they had abandoned them for everything else. According to Play Today data, 43% of sports fans cited live sport as the reason they could not cancel their cable subscription.

That moat is being filled in, rapidly. The global sports streaming platform market was valued at $33.93 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $68.30 billion by 2030, growing at 12.6% CAGR (Grand View Research). The live sports streaming PPV market alone is projected to grow from $7.05 billion in 2025 to $20.41 billion by 2035.

The rights revolution

Amazon Prime Video now streams NFL Thursday Night Football and Premier League matches in multiple markets. Apple TV+ holds exclusive rights to Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer in North America. Netflix has moved aggressively into live sports, acquiring rights to WWE, tennis Grand Slams and NFL Christmas games. YouTube TV has become a primary destination for NBA coverage. DAZN — the sports-only streaming service — operates across Germany, Spain, Italy, France and the UK with over 18 million European subscribers as of late 2025, and holds a 33% share of global streaming sports rights spend, more than any other single platform (Ampere Analytics, 2025).

Streaming platforms will spend $12.5 billion on sports rights in 2025 alone — representing 20% of total global sports rights expenditure of $64 billion, up from just 8% in 2021 (Ampere Analytics). That share is accelerating, not plateauing. The NBA's new $76 billion media rights deal includes Amazon streaming packages. The UFC has moved PPV fights to ESPN+ and Prime Video. Boxing marquee events — Canelo Alvarez, Anthony Joshua — regularly attract over 1 million PPV purchases through digital platforms rather than traditional cable operators.

Cricket, football and Asia

In Asia, the story is defined by cricket and football. The Indian Premier League on JioHotstar (the merged JioCinema/Disney+ Hotstar platform) peaked at over 60 million concurrent streams during IPL 2025 — an astonishing figure that reflects both India's population and its streaming infrastructure catching up with demand. Disney Star holds exclusive worldwide streaming rights to all ICC cricket tournaments for 2024–2027. Football in Southeast Asia — the Premier League especially — drives massive streaming demand across Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, all served by a mix of regional broadcasters and international IPTV providers.

The Global Picture — Region by Region

United Kingdom

The UK sits at an interesting crossroads. Public service broadcasting remains strong — the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 command real audiences for major live events — but streaming has comprehensively taken over among younger demographics. Sky Sports remains dominant in live sports rights (Premier League, Formula 1, Test cricket), but its NOW streaming service has grown rapidly as younger subscribers refuse to commit to long-term satellite contracts. BT Sport (now TNT Sports) has partnered with discovery+ for streaming delivery. The BBC's iPlayer and Channel 4's streaming service are genuinely world-class free streaming products. IPTV subscriptions in the UK continue to grow as households seek international content not available through domestic platforms — particularly viewers from South Asian, African and Eastern European communities seeking home-country channels.

United States

The US is the world's largest single IPTV market by revenue, projected at $27.24 billion in 2026 (Fortune Business Insights). It is also the world's most advanced cord-cutting market: as of 2025, only 36% of Americans still subscribe to cable or satellite TV (Pew Research Center, July 2025), and among 18–29 year olds, that figure is just 16%. The virtual MVPD market — streaming bundles that replicate a live TV experience, like YouTube TV (8 million subscribers), Hulu + Live TV (4.5 million), and FuboTV (1.618 million) — has grown but has not offset the decline in traditional pay TV. Streaming is simply what American television is now.

Thailand and Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia is one of the most dynamic streaming markets in the world. Rapid smartphone penetration, affordable mobile data plans, and a young, tech-literate population have combined to produce exceptional growth rates. Asia-Pacific accounts for 45.89% of global IPTV revenue in 2025 — the single largest regional share — growing at 16.3% CAGR. In Thailand specifically, IPTV adoption has been driven by demand for international sports (Premier League, Champions League, Formula 1), international movie content, and a large expatriate population seeking home-country content from the UK, Europe, and the US.

Phuket, in particular, has seen extraordinary IPTV growth driven by its hospitality sector. Hotels, villas, resorts and sports bars across the island serve guests from across the globe who arrive with streaming expectations established at home. A guest from Manchester expects to watch the same Premier League matches they would watch at home. A family from the US expects access to the same content library. IPTV is the infrastructure that makes that possible.

Middle East and Africa

The Middle East and Africa IPTV market was valued at $8.48 billion in 2025, projected to reach $9.99 billion in 2026. Saudi Arabia's STC used a five-million-home fiber build to launch an 8K sports pack in 2024 — a signal of where premium IPTV is headed in the region. Cricket, football and Formula 1 drive demand across the Gulf, while pan-African streaming platforms are beginning to emerge to serve the continent's 1.4 billion people, the youngest demographic cohort in the world.

What This All Means for Viewers Worldwide

The summary is straightforward: the gatekeepers are gone. For most of television history, what you could watch was controlled by what your cable or satellite provider decided to carry, what your national broadcaster decided to commission, and what time the schedule dictated. All three of those constraints have been demolished.

The viewer now has more choice than at any point in human history. The 2025 global streaming catalog contains tens of millions of titles. IPTV services carry thousands of live channels from hundreds of countries. A viewer in Bangkok can watch live NFL football, a British soap opera, a Thai drama, and a Hollywood blockbuster on the same device in the same evening, without a satellite dish, a cable contract, or a set-top box from a local provider.

The remaining challenges

Three genuine challenges remain. First, content fragmentation: with so many platforms holding exclusive rights to different content, viewers can find themselves needing multiple subscriptions to access everything they want. Second, geographic restrictions: many streaming services still apply regional licensing restrictions, meaning content available in one country is blocked in another. Third, reliability: live sport in particular demands low-latency, high-quality streams that buffering or dropouts can ruin at the worst possible moment.

IPTV services — particularly those focused on live channels and international sports — address all three. A quality IPTV subscription aggregates content from multiple sources, bypasses regional restrictions, and is engineered specifically for the live viewing experience that pure on-demand platforms were not originally designed to deliver.

Where Monster Streams Fits In

Monster Streams is a worldwide IPTV provider operating across the UK, US, Thailand, Phuket, and Southeast Asia — exactly the markets where the shift from traditional TV to streaming has been most dramatic and where international content access matters most.

We serve homes, hotels, villas, sports bars and restaurants — the full spectrum of viewing environments, from the living room to the hospitality venue. Our service is compatible with Firestick, Android boxes, Smart TVs, phones and tablets — every device that the streaming revolution has made central to daily life. And our setup guides get you live within the hour, without the complexity that has historically made international TV access feel out of reach.

The world has made its choice. Traditional TV had its century. Streaming and IPTV are what comes next — and the data makes clear that the transition is not slowing down. It is accelerating.

Statistics sourced from: Fortune Business Insights IPTV Market Report 2034; IMARC Group IPTV Market Report 2034; Mordor Intelligence Internet Protocol Television Market 2031; Grand View Research Sports Streaming Platform Market 2030; Ampere Analytics Global Sports Rights Report 2025; Nielsen The Gauge US TV viewership data 2025; Pew Research Center Media & Technology Survey July 2025; PwC Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2025; Forbes/Nielsen cable TV viewership data 2024–2025; WIPO Global Innovation Index 2026 film and streaming data; eMarketer CTV advertising forecasts 2025; Apprupt IPTV Statistics 2026; Fortune Business Insights Video Streaming Market 2026. All figures correct at time of publication, 10 July 2026.