TV Ownership in Pakistan: From Growth, to Stagnation, to Decline

TV ownership in Pakistan tells a three-phase story.

Gallup Pakistan Digital Analytics has been digitising decades of survey data from Pakistan Bureau of Statistics . In this dashboard which look at HIES series and how asset ownership has changed we explore how assets acquisition is happening.

The dashboard can be accessed here : https://lnkd.in/dpVYjvvG

Below we explore rise and fall of Television in the country .

Phase 1 – Growth:
It (TV) rose steadily from 43% in 2004–05 to about 62% by 2012–13.
Phase 2 – Stagnation:
For nearly a decade, ownership remained stuck around 62%, showing that market expansion had largely saturated.
Phase 3 – Decline:
By 2025, TV ownership has fallen sharply to about 50%.
This is not a small fluctuation. It is a structural change.
Two dynamics may be at play:
• Many households are not replacing old TVs when they stop working.
• Many new households are not buying a TV at all — a product that was once considered essential.
A quiet but telling cultural shift:
TV is no longer a default dowry item in many households.

Content consumption has not declined — but the shared household screen is losing its central place.

Pakistan may now be entering a post-TV household formation era.