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18 April 2007
MPA:
Pay TV to rule market by 2011
By Asish Sinha New Delhi
Business Standard
(c) 2007 Business Standard Ltd.
As a direct result of the increased digitisation of
the cable delivery system and high pay TV penetration,
the Indian pay TV market will generate a turnover of
$10 billion (Rs 42,000 crore) by 2011, up from $4.2
billion (about Rs 16,500 crore) in 2006.
Pay TV penetration in the country will reach 84 per
cent of the television homes by 2011, up from 61 per
cent in 2006. By 2011, there will be 107 million cable
households, as compared to 71 million in 2006.
These are the latest findings on Asia’s pay TV market
by Media Partners Asia (MPA), an independent media research
company headquartered in Hong Kong.
According to the report, 90 per cent of the television
houses in the country will subscribe to the pay service
by 2015, of which 37 per cent will have a digital set
top box.
“We see mandatory and voluntary conditional access
systems (CAS) boosting digitisation, and model digital
cable subscription growing from a projected 1.35 million
at December 2007 to 12.2 million by 2011 and to 22.6
million by 2015,&8221; MPA Executive Director Vivek
Couto said.
The increased investments in the distribution infrastructure
of the cable industry has led to an increase in the
consumer demand for digital pay TV. The market added
almost 1.2 million digital pay TV customers during the
first three months of 2007 alone, boosted by the rollout
of CAS and aggressive marketing strategy by two direct-to-home
(DTH) service providers, the MPA report said.
“Such a trend, which is set to accelerate, should
bring much needed addressability to the market. This
is likely to provide a solution to problems associated
with subscriber under-declaration and piracy,”
Couto said.
MPA forecasts the number of DTH customers will reach
38 million by 2015, from 1.9 million in 2006. The current
industry estimates say that while Dish TV has acquired
2.7 million DTH subscribers, its rival TataSky has got
close to 0.8 million subscribers.
According to the MPA report, DTH will enter a phase
of mass adoption between 2008-12, adding 5-6 million
net new subscribers per annum, with six operators likely
to compete in the market. “Aggressive subsidies
on set-top boxes and installation costs, as well as
competitive monthly rates will drive adoption, with
breakeven likely to occur over five years,” the
report said.
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