AsiaPac Adds Half a Billion Digital Homes

LONDON: The Asia-Pacific region is going through a period of rapid digital conversion, with penetration increasing from 28.9 percent of TV households in 2010 to 51.7 percent in 2013 and 61.2 percent by the end of this year.

This will increase to 97.5 percent by 2020, which is up by 501 million homes between 2013 and 2020, according to a new report from Digital TV Research. The forecast is that China will provide 225 million of the extra digital TV homes, with India adding a further 118 million. These two markets have a massive influence, with a combined 663 million TV households, which is 70 percent of the region's total, by 2020. 

Of the 501 million digital homes to be added between 2013 and 2020, 172 million will come from DTT. Digital cable will contribute a further 200 million additional homes. Pay satellite TV will supply an extra 47 million, with free-to-air satellite TV adding 14 million. Pay IPTV will record 69 million additional subs.

Pay-TV penetration will rise from 58.5 percent in 2013 to 68 percent in 2020, adding 164 million subs to take the total to 648 million. Digital pay-TV penetration will climb from 20.9 percent in 2010 on to 66.5 percent in 2020. Digital pay-TV subscribers will quadruple from 163 million in 2010 to 636 million by 2020.
 
Pay-TV revenues in Asia Pacific will be $46 billion in 2020, which is nearly double the 2010 figure. Digital pay-TV revenues will triple from $15 billion in 2010 to $46 billion in 2020.

Simon Murray, author of the report, said: “Despite the rapid conversion, digital TV will still have plenty of room for growth for some time to come. Only 12 of the 22 countries forecast in this report will have fully converted to digital by 2020.”

Murray added: “China overtook Japan to become the most lucrative pay TV market in 2011. India will take second place from 2019. Together China, India and Japan will account for two-thirds of the region’s $46 billion pay-TV revenues by 2020.”