The Indian and Chinese Digital Pay TV (DPTV) market will grow by 173% in the
next five years, says a report published by Media Partner Asia. However, China
will remain far ahead of India when it comes to the number of DPTV subscribers.
The report says that India will have 21.36 mn DPTV subscribers by the end of
2009, and 58.3 mn by the end of 2014. However, India's nearest rival in
Asia-China-will have 74.47 mn subscribers by the end of 2009, and the number
will grow to 204.45 mn by the end of 2014, witnessing almost 174% growth rate.
Alan Dishington, sales director, NDS, points out that India has a huge
potential for digital TV as well as DTH. The country has 80 mn cable homes, so
there is a huge untapped market for DPTV or DTH. He says, "As India is a
cost-conscious market, the biggest challenge against an operator is to provide
services at affordable price to the customer. This is especially important as
ARPU for pay TV in India is around $4-5, which is very low in comparison with
the UK and the US, where ARPU is $60-70."
The MPA research shows that the top forty DPTV operators in Asia added an
aggregate of 5.8 mn new subscribers over H1 of 2009, taking their combined
customer base to 65.3 mn, which accounts for around a third of the installed
DPTV base across the region. MPA forecasts indicate that these operators will
reach 70.7 mn subscribers mark by the year-end, implying annual net addition of
11.3 mn and close to 20% annual growth.
DTH is gaining acceptance and momentum with consumers. All the investments in
physical infrastructure and fiber networks will start to show results now.
Implementation of CAS will speed up the transition to digital. "We have invested
in creating a substantial library of content for these platforms and look
forward to bringing the customer more variety and quality than ever before,"
says Jai Maroo, director, Shemaroo Entertainment.
Subscriber growth has been significant in low-ARPU emerging markets, such as
China and India, where cable and DTH, respectively, have led the way. Subscriber
growth and ARPU growth have softened in Singapore and Hong Kong and churn has
grown in Indonesia, but customer growth remains robust in Thailand, Malaysia
and, for the most part, Australia. More than 70% of the top forty operators'
user base had been upgraded to DPTV by the end of June-due to momentum in China,
Australia, Japan and Korea, and a recent cable DPTV relaunch in Taiwan. However,
India has disappointed in terms of cable DPTV growth.
The entry of organized players is one of the key driving factors for growth.
"The cable TV sector has so far been unorganized. Now organized players are
making their entry. They are doing their best to enhance the user experince,
including digitalization of the medium," says Kapil Dev, COO, MyWay IPTV.
According to him, entry cost and higher price would be the key challenge in
acheiving robust growth.
Akhilesh Shukla
akhileshs@cybermedia.co.in
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