Unlike most of the rest of the world, the Asia Pacific pay TV sector is vibrant, with subscribers and revenues forecast to rise over the next five years.
China and India together will account for 80% of the region’s 666 million pay TV subscribers by 2022. China will add 40 million TV subscribers between 2016 and 2022, with India adding an extra 30 million. However, five of the 22 countries covered by Digital TV Research’s Asia Pacific Pay TV Forecasts report will lose subscribers to pay-TV services over the next five years.
Between 2016 and 2022, 72 million of the additional 92 million subscribers in the region will receive their pay-TV services via digital cable networks. However, analogue cable subscriptions will fall by 70 million, negating any major growth in the Asia Pacific’s cable sector overall. IPTV will contribute an extra 57 million subscriptions, while subscriptions to satellite delivered pay-TV services will rise by 32 million.
“Together, China, India and Japan will account for more than two-thirds of the region’s US$40.13 billion pay-TV revenues by 2022. Pay-TV revenue will increase by $5.75 billion between 2016 and 2022. India will contribute $3.25 billion to the additional revenues, with China responsible for another $1.1 billion more. Pay-TV revenues will double in Bangladesh and Myanmar, but will fall in six other countries,” said Simon Murray, senior analyst, Digital TV Research.
Of the region’s pay-TV operators, China Radio & TV will remain dominant in terms of revenue, despite a predicted revenue fall of $763 million between 2016 and 2022. Researchers predict the company will lose 20.5 million analogue cable subscriptions, with a net loss of 531,000 subscribers.
IPTV operators China Telecom and BesTV are both on the ascent, with researchers forecasting a revenue gain for the former of more than $1 billion and the latter of $608 million. The revenue rises will follow an increase in subscribers of 24.39 million for China Telecom and 12.9 million for BesTV during the five-year period.
Indian direct-to-home (DTH) operator Dish TV is also forecast to add 5.2 million subscribers by 2022, however Japan’s SkyPerfecTV is expected to drop 289,000 subscribers over the same period.
