Report Sees Continued Boom in Asia-Pac Pay-TV Business

LONDON: Pay-TV subscription and on-demand revenues in Asia are set to hit $33.9 billion this year, reports Digital TV Research, rising to $43.9 billion in five years’ time, led by the growth in digital cable and DTH customers.

In 2012, analogue pay-TV revenues were $10.4 billion, on par with digital revenues of $10.6 billion, with $3.2 billion from IPTV platforms and $7.9 billion from DTH services. This year, analogue revenues are expected to fall to $8.9 billion, with digital rising to $12.4 billion, IPTV to $4 billion and DTH to $8.5 billion. By 2018, analogue will account for just $1.8 billion in revenues, with the bulk coming from digital cable ($23.2 billion), followed by DTH ($11.6 billion) and IPTV ($7.2 billion). In terms of the number of homes, meanwhile, digital cable is set to rise from 204.7 million this year to 354.5 million in 2018, with DTT rising from 54.9 million to 167.3 million, IPTV from 48.4 million to 106.6 million and pay DTH from 62 million to 89.8 million. Analogue terrestrial, accounting for 229.4 million homes this year, will fall to just 55.4 million in 2018.

Pay-TV penetration is set to rise from 56 percent in 2012 to 67 percent in 2018. In 2018, there are expected to be 587 million homes with pay TV in the region, with 313 million in China alone, and 158 million in India.

“China overtook Japan to become the most lucrative pay TV market in 2012," said Simon Murray, author of the Digital TV Asia Pacific report. "Pay-TV revenues will more than double in five countries [Indonesia (tripling), Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam] between 2012 and 2018, but will fall in Hong Kong and South Korea.”

Digital pay-TV penetration is forecast to rise from 43 percent this year to 90 percent in 2018. Murray noted, "Despite the rapid conversion, digital TV will still have plenty of room for growth for some time to come. Only six of the 15 countries forecast in this report will have fully converted to digital by 2018. By then, Indonesia and the Philippines will have digital penetration of only 42 percent and 34 percent, respectively. Indonesia will still have 29 million analogue homes and India 31 million.”