Asia Pacific set for 630mn pay-TV subs by 2026

A study from Digital TV Research is forecasting that unlike in other key markets such as Europe and North America, Asia Pacific’s pay-TV arena will display steady growth over the next five years, increasing from 609 million at the end of 2020 to 630 million subscribers by 2026.

The Asia Pacific OTT TV and Video Forecasts study observed that six countries will lose pay-TV subscribers between 2020 and 2026.Most will be developed countries, but China is also included with the pay-TV market in the mega-territory projected to fall by 10 million
subscribers. This said Digital TV Research was a product of cord-cutting, but represents only a 3% decline to 318 million.

India is set to add 21 million subscriber and together with China will amass nearly 500 million subs by 2026. By this time, said the analyst, the number of TV households will grow by 54 million to 979 million. Somewhat surprisingly, the Japanese and Korean pay-TV markets are both set for flat growth, resulting in 20.2 million and 17.6 million subs respectively.

Looking at platforms, the Asia Pacific OTT TV and Video Forecasts study showed that IPTV subscribers will likely overtake cable in 2024. IPTV was projected to add 51 million subscribers between 2020 and 2026 to take its total to 283 million. Digital and analogue cable subscriptions were forecast to fall by 19 million and 13 million respectively. Pay satellite TV numbers were projected to increase by only 2 million subscribers to take the total to 83 million. Rapid TV News