The number of paying IPTV subscribers in the Asia Pacific region overtook paying satellite TV users in 2015, according to Digital TV Research.
The fifth edition of ‘Digital TV Asia Pacific forecasts’, which covers 22 countries, predicted 123.5 million IPTV subscribers by 2021, with China contributing 78.4 million of that total.
Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV Research, said, “Pay-TV penetration will rise from 61.1 per cent in 2015 to 69.2 per cent in 2021, adding 127 million subs to take the total to 647 million.
“Even more impressive is that digital pay-TV penetration will climb from 21.2 per cent in 2010 to 44.9 per cent in 2015, on to 68.3 per cent in 2021. Digital pay-TV subscribers will nearly quadruple from 164 million in 2010 to 639 million by 2021.”
“China will provide 329 million pay-TV households by 2021, with India supplying a further 178 million. However, legitimate pay-TV penetration will be lowest in Thailand (30.2 per cent), Australia (31.7 per cent) and Indonesia (32.6 per cent).”
The report also predicted that of the 314 million digital TV homes to be added between 2015 and 2021, 107 million will come from DTT, with the number of analogue terrestrial homes falling by 158 million.
In terms of revenue, the research concluded that pay-TV will reach $40 billion in 2021; up from $24 billion in 2010 and $31 billion in 2015, with digital pay-TV revenues tripling from $14 billion in 2010 to $39 billion in 2021.
