According to Digital TV Research, unlike most of the rest of the world, the Asia-Pacific (APAC) pay TV sector is vibrant, with subscribers and revenues forecast to rise over the next five years.
China and India together are expected to account for 80% of the region's 666 million pay TV subscribers by 2022. China is expected to add 40 million subs between 2016 and 2022, with India bringing in an extra 30 million. However, five of the 22 countries covered in the forecast are expected to lose subs between 2016 and 2022.
Digital cable is expected to supply 72 million of the 92 million pay TV subscriber additions between 2016 and 2022. However, analog cable subscriptions are expected to fall by 70 million, leaving cable nearly flat overall. IPTV is expected to contribute in an extra 57 million subs, with pay satellite TV up by 32 million.
Together China, India and Japan are expected to account for more than two-thirds of the region's $40.13 billion pay TV revenues by 2022.
Pay TV revenue is expected to increase by $5.75 billion between 2016 and 2022. India is expected to contribute $3.25 billion to the additional revenues, with China bringing in $1.10 billion more. Pay TV revenues are expected to double in Bangladesh and Myanmar, but to fall in six other countries.
China Radio and TV is expected to gain 19.97 million digital cable subscribers between 2016 and 2022. However, the operator is also expected to lose 20.50 million analog cable subs, for a net loss of 531,000 subs. The next biggest loser is expected to be Japan's SkyPerfecTV, down by 289,000 subscribers over the same period.
IPTV operators China Telecom (plus 24.39 million) and BesTV (plus 12.19 million) are expected to gain the most pay TV subscribers over the same period, followed by India's Dish TV (plus 5.20 million).
China Radio & TV is expected to remain the region's dominant pay TV operator in revenue terms by a wide margin, but its revenues are expected to fall by $763 million between 2016 and 2022. Meanwhile, China Telecom is expected to gain more than $1 billion, and BesTV is expected to climb by $608 million.