India’s pay-TV industry revenues to grow at 7% CAGR till 2025

India’s pay-TV industry is estimated to grow at about 7 per cent CAGR in 2020-25 period, with total industry revenues pegged to touch $12.3 billion by 2025, according to a report by Media Partners Asia (MPA). These revenues include both subscription and advertising.

In 2020, total revenues (including subscription and advertising revenues), of the industry declined by 10 per cent compared to the same period last year and stood at $8.9 billion, the report titled “India Pay-TV Distribution 2021” stated. The decline was largely attributed to the adverse impact on advertising spends post the pandemic outbreak.

After a 25 per cent contraction in 2020, pay-TV advertising is however expected to grow at 12 per cent CAGR over 2020-25, it added.

“India Pay-TV Distribution” is an annual report published by Media Partners Asia, covering commercial distribution of pay-TV and fixed broadband in India.

Meanwhile, with more than 96 per cent of India’s pay-TV homes expected to be digitized by 2025, the total pay-TV subscriber base is expected to expand from 127 million in 2020 to 134 million by 2025, the report added.

MPA estimates that India’s active DTH homes will grow from 58 million in 2020 to more than 68 million in 2025. However, cable TV’s share of paid subscribers is expected to decline from 54 per cent in 2020 to 46 per cent by 2025

Mihir Shah, Vice President , MPA India said, “Robust backend systems, the ability to offer consumers flexibility in choosing channel packages under NTO (new tariff order) and the exit of leading private channels from DD Freedish helped the DTH pay-TV sector grow even after the new TRAI tariff regulations came into effect. Going forward, DTH will be the key driver of growth fulfilling the needs of the majority of new TV households entering into the pay-TV ecosystem.”

He added that premium cable subscribers in urban centres remain vulnerable to churn as uptake of quality fiber-based broadband services including IPTV has been growing in affluent pockets of urban India. The Hindu Business Line