Report says 4.2 crore active users expected The number of active direct-to-home subscribers in India will touch 4.2 crore, making it the largest DTH market in the world by 2012, according to Media Partners Asia's (MPA) annual research report Asia Pacific Pay-TV and Broadband Markets 2011.

MPA estimates the DTH subscriber base in India to grow from 2.3 crore in 2010 to 6.4 crore by 2015, and 8.3 crore by 2020. The US is expected to be the second largest DTH market with 3.5 crore active subscribers.

The challenges laid out by Media Partners for Indian DTH players are transponder capacity, high churn, subscriber acquisition costs and limited pricing power. The report notes that four out of the six Indian DTH players will generate free cash flow after 2015, driven by scale and cost control.

Pay-TV subscribers in India are expected to reach 16.6 crore by 2015 and 19 crore by 2020. 

After accounting for households that opt for both cable and DTH, pay-TV penetration is estimated to grow from 79 per cent to 88 per cent between 2010 and 2020.

DTH will be the main driver of subscriber growth, digital penetration and HD growth, according to the report.

The pay-TV advertising market is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 17 per cent over 2010-15. Pay-TV subscription revenues will grow at a 12 per cent CAGR over the same period to reach Rs 37,623 crore by 2015, driven by DTH and digitisation of cable networks, says MPA.

The Indian cable and satellite advertising is estimated to surpass that in China by 2017, leading the Asia-Pacific region with Rs 25,082 crore in net revenues.

Three Indian companies — Sun TV, Zee and Star India — dominate the top 10 profit rankings for Asian pay-TV broadcasters.

Mr Vivek Couto, Executive Director, MPA, said, "Encouragingly, revenue growth is trending at optimum levels due to a strong economy, a buoyant advertising market and the rapid growth of DTH. Yet, such is the extent of competition, cost and fragmentation that profit margins remain low, even for market leaders."

He added that margins and value chain economics would improve in the long term, through digitisation of cable networks, rising subscriber scale, improved cost control and strong advertising growth.