Two homegrown media companies -- Sun Network of Kalanithi Maran and Zee Entertainment of Subhash Chandra -- have maintained their number one and two positions, respectively, in the Asia-Pacific pay broadcaster ranks for the third year in a row on the basis of Ebitda (Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization).

Sun TV, Zee and Star India have together generated $400 million Ebitda in the Asia-Pacific or 50% of the overall Ebitda generated by pay TV broadcasters in the region for 2009-10, said a report from Media Partners Asia (MPA), an international media research agency. The report also said that India will emerge as the largest DTH market in the world in terms of subscribers by 2012, overtaking the US. India will have a DTH base of 36 million by 2012, while the US base will be around 35 million. However, in terms of average revenue per user, the US market will continue to be far ahead of the rest of the world.

Star India, part of Rupert Murdoch's Asian broadcasting empire, now called Fox International, is ranked fourth, an improvement of two spots. The MPA report is widely accepted by most broadcasters in the Asia-Pacific. Sun TV Network's projected Ebitda for FY10 is $165 million (Rs 790 crore), up 24% from $133 million (Rs 638 crore) reported by MPA last year. The projected Ebitda of Zee Entertainment for FY10 is $143 million (Rs 686 crore), up from $121 million (around Rs 580 crore) the report said. MPA projections suggest that pay TV subscribers will grow from 105 million in 2009 to 149 million by 2014, and 173 million by 2020.

This means pay TV penetration will grow from 78% in 2009 to more than 90% by 2014. Cable will retain 70% market share by 2014, falling to 64% by 2020, while DTH will reach almost 35% share in the long-term, Vivek Couto, executive director, MPA told FE from Hong Kong. "MPA sees industry sales growing to $12.1 billion by 2014 and $18.5 billion by 2020; margins will improve to 15% and 23% over the same period, with EBITDA profits reaching $2.3 billion and $4.4 billion," Couto told FE.