Pay-TV revenues in the Asia-Pacific region are forecast to grow by $10 billion between 2014 and 2020, at which time the total is expected to reach $41.52 billion.
According to Digital TV Research’s Digital TV Asia Pacific Forecasts report, cable TV will remain the highest pay-TV segment, with revenues at $23 billion by 2020. Digital cable TV revenues will grow by 63 percent between 2014 and 2020 to $22.54 billion, with analog cable TV falling from $6.20 billion to $56 million.
Pay-TV penetration will rise from 59 percent of TV households in 2014 to 68.4 percent in 2020, adding 142 million subs to take the total to 642 million. Digital pay-TV penetration will increase from 20.9 percent in 2010 to 44.2 percent in 2014 and on to 67 percent in 2020. Digital pay-TV subscribers are forecast to quadruple from 163 million in 2010 to 628 million by 2020.
China is expected to provide 323 million pay-TV households by 2020, with India supplying a further 179 million. China overtook Japan to become the most lucrative pay-TV market in 2012. India will take second place from 2020.
Together, China, India and Japan will account for two-thirds of the region’s $42 billion pay-TV revenues by 2020. Pay-TV revenues are expected to more than double in seven countries—Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan—between 2014 and 2020.
Due to greater competition, including OTT, and subscribers converting to bundles, revenues will fall during this period in Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan, with low growth expected in South Korea.
Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV Research, said: “The number of homes paying for IPTV will overtake pay satellite TV subscribers in 2018. IPTV revenues will climb to $7.13 billion by 2020, up from $4.43 billion in 2014. However, pay satellite TV revenues will remain higher than IPTV. India will generate $4.15 billion of the region’s $11.06 billion satellite TV revenues in 2020.”
