Intelsat: “APAC leads pay-TV revenues”
July 2, 2021
By Chris Forrester
Intelsat’s Media Market Watch states that traditional pay-TV viewing in the Asia-Pacific region is “leading the way” in revenue generation for operators.
Intelsat’s study (via AVIA and S&P Global) states that it is the largest pay-TV region in the world with 17 key markets and some 655 million subscribers.
It states that Multichannel cable households make up roughly 58 per cent of the market, and over the next 10 years, cable is expected to maintain its lead in subscribers and revenue. The study says that pay-TV revenue growth between 2025-2029 will be worth $26 billion across all services, with satellite continuing to meet the growing demands of audiences while building revenue and reach for programmers.
“Programmers in the region continue to increase their revenue from TV. Meanwhile, the cost of distribution remains low; globally, it’s less than 12 cents a day, on average, to distribute one channel to thousands of viewers when using satellite,” says the study. “By 2024, broadcast TV advertising throughout Asia-Pacific is expected to hit $44 billion, far outpacing online advertising, which is only expected to reach $2 billion (source: AVIA),” adds the study.
“While OTT is seeing success in largely urbanised places like Australia and Singapore due to strong broadband penetration, OTT distribution is struggling to keep up with pay-TV in other areas of this region. The reasons for this vary, but reliability and quality are still big stumbling blocks for OTT,” says Intelsat.
The operator specifically mentions its IS-17 craft, which looks after India and has enjoyed growth of 37 per cent year-on-year since launch.