Pay-TV penetration to drop to 67% in Asia Pacific

Pay-TV household penetration in Asia Pacific is expected to drop from 67.4 percent in 2018 to 67 percent in 2023, as per GlobalData. China has 415.6 million pay-TV subscriptions. India has 177.2 million pay-TV subscriptions. Korea has 33.2 million pay-TV subscriptions.

The pay-TV subscriber base will increase to 427.7 million in 2023 from 415.6 million in 2018 in China, 199.4 million vs 177.2 million in India, 34.6 million vs 33.2 million in South Korea, 8 million vs 5.5 million in Thailand and 4.4 million vs 3.3 million in the Philippines, the report says.

The pay-TV subscriber base will decrease to 2.3 million in 2023 from 2.4 million in 2018 in Hong Kong and 3.6 million vs 3.7 million in Australia. Whereas, the Asia Pacific’s developed markets such as Hong Kong and Australia are forecast to witness a decline in pay-TV penetration levels primarily due to cord-cutting and the popularity of over-the-top (OTT) video streaming platforms.

Most OTT players offer their services at a lower price than traditional pay-TV packages. The effect is an increasing number of consumers only willing to pay for the content they know they will watch,” Malcolm Rogers, telecom analyst at GlobalData, said.

Chunghwa Telecom, a leading mobile operator in Taiwan, offers its Multimedia On Demand (MOD) service with variable pricing per channel from US$0.16 (NT$5) to US$4.98 (NT$150), based on the cost from the content provider. This enables Chunghwa Telecom to target price sensitive customers and compete with lower cost OTT options.

Many pay-TV providers in the region have launched or will launch their own OTT platforms. Standalone OTT players are increasingly seeking pay-TV provider partnerships. The pay-TV and OTT platforms are becoming increasingly integrated as customers want a device agnostic viewing experience.