HONG KONG: Pay-TV advertising in Asia Pacific is set to increase by 43% over the next five years according to a new report which also finds that subscriber growth and revenue growth is slowing from the levels seen in the five years to 2014.

Asia Pacific Pay-TV & Broadband Markets, published by industry analysts Media Partners Asia (MPA), put the value of pay-TV advertising in the region at $10bn in 2014 and forecast this would reach $14.3bn by 2019.

Most of this growth will come from India, China and Korea, while Australia, Japan and Taiwan will also contribute.

But the report did not expect that Southeast Asia would be a major factor, describing the TV ad opportunity there as "under-exploited", thanks to a combination of limited penetration in most markets and poor execution.

MPA added that the region's pay-TV industry was under pressure, despite total sales increasing at 6.6% a year between 2014 and 2019 to reach $72bn, as the pace of both subscriber and revenue growth declined.

Outside of China, the region added a net total of around 10.8m new pay-TV subscribers in 2014. This compared to 11.2m in 2013 and an annual figure of between 15m and 18m from 2008 to 2011.

Next year is likely to see a spike, however, as India's next phase of cable digitalization comes on stream, with a steady deceleration expected thereafter.

Including China, the report put the total number of pay-TV subscribers in Asia-Pacific at around 500m in 2014, a figure it said would grow to 598m by 2023, while pay-TV penetration of TV households was predicted to grow from 54% to 61% over the same period.

"Pay-TV operators are striving to either reignite growth or sustain existing momentum with a new cycle of value creation," said Vivek Couto, MPA director.

"Most players have invested to enhance program windows and offer more VOD. Others are climbing the curve of product innovation with all-HD platforms, with more local and Asian content, as well as live sports, a key mainstay for pay-TV."

Data sourced from Media Business Asia; additional content by Warc staff