Pay television revenues in Asia-Pacific are set to double over the next five years to $60bn and boost profit margins for operators, according to a new study.

Industry dynamics will also offer consolidation and sale opportunities for existing operators, which include foreign private equity groups and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, said Media Partners Asia, the research consultancy.

Regional pay-TV revenues – spanning cable, satellite and telecom networks – were $32bn last year and could reach $60bn by 2015, according to the report to be published on Thursday.

MPA said that the regional growth rates – which have attracted the attention of foreign media groups – were driven by rising penetration of pay-TV in countries such as India and China and the growth of digital services.

Vivek Couto, MPA executive director, added that increasing consumer expenditure and the emergence of large markets for satellite and cable TV advertising were also boosting industry revenues.

MPA said that India and China contributed more than 75 per cent of net new subscribers last year, although the average revenue per user was lower than in more developed regional markets.

Foreign participation in the Chinese TV market remains tightly controlled for political reasons and foreign groups generate revenue by selling content to broadcasters.

However, the India market is less restricted to overseas entrants, although pay-TV operators are unhappy at what they insist is an outdated tax and regulatory regime.

Despite the grumbles, MPA calculates that the combined pay-TV revenues of the Indian units of foreign groups last year topped $1.5bn.

The report shows that pay-TV operators are delivering widely varied profit margins, depending on the level of local competition and short-term capital expenditure on next generation services.

According to MPA, the combined revenues of the myriad regional pay-TV operations of News Corp last year were $1.2bn of which earnings were $220m, or 20 per cent.

At least six broadcast groups, including India’s Sun and Hong Kong’s TVB, last year earned profit margins above 30 per cent.

The report predicts that consolidation and mergers and acquisitions activity will boost profits in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, but earnings are likely to be volatile in Singapore and Thailand.

Dealmakers report rising activity in the sector across the region.

In January, Liberty Global of the US agreed to sell its 37.8 per cent stake in JCom, Japan’s largest cable TV operator, to telecoms operator KDDI in a $4bn deal.

Foreign private equity firms and strategic buyers have also been eyeing a 40 per cent stake in MNC Sky Vision, Indonesia’s leading pay-TV platform, in a deal that could value the operator at up to $800m including debt.