Zenith Optimedia's report on 'Television in the Americas to 2007' says that while income from pay TV is on the rise, ad revenues will still be king until the end of the report period.
The survey says that after seeing a 4.2% fall in adspend in 2001, television ad revenues will return to growth this year. Between 1990 and 2000, television ad expenditure increased by 90% from $33.2bn (£21.2bn) to $63.2bn.
The increasing popularity of pay TV could prove a stabilising influence on media companies' revenues, as the survey says that subscription revenues proved to be far less vulnerable to the economic downturn than advertising revenues.
Across the Americas, $48.6bn was spent subscribing to pay television in 2001. This is expected to rise to $78.8bn by 2007.
The media planning and buying company is also predicting that by the end of 2007, half of the households in the Americas will be watching digital television. At present, analogue cable is the dominant form of pay TV.
The US is the only country to have launched digital terrestrial services in the Americas, with only 362,000 US households subscribing to them, representing market penetration of 0.4%. This is expected to rise to 3.8% by 2007.
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