MUMBAI: A new report from Media Partners Asia (MPA) and TV.NXT projects that Indian TV revenues will see a 12-percent compound annual growth rate over the next five years to reach $15 billion by 2016.

The TV ad market is expected to see a 15-percent CAGR over the next five years, the report continues, with the medium accounting for 45-percent of all advertising revenues by 2016. By then, India will be Asia's third-largest ad market, behind Japan and China and ahead of Australia and Korea (which it will pass in 2014.) Affiliate fees and other non-ad revenues will rise at a slower pace of 11 percent to hit $10 billion in the next five years.

The India TV Industry—Act Two report, released as the TV.NXT event kicked off in Mumbai, also features a weighted scorecard index of the main players in the Indian TV business. Leading the pack is News Corporation's Star India, followed closely by Sun TV Network. Zee Entertainment is in third place, and Sony in fourth. Rounding out the top ten are Discovery, Network18, Turner, Disney and Reliance.

"India's TV sector continues to give strategic global groups unrivalled access and exposure to growth in Asia-Pacific," says Vivek Couto, MPA's executive director. "How successful India is in emerging as a profit engine in the future and as a driver of talent and capital across global franchises, will depend on the pace of consolidation and M&A; the growth of new markets and demographics; the monetization of digital and broadband infrastructure; and progressive change to an outdated regulatory regime."