Asia by 2015 - 400 Million Digital TV Homes With 40 Million On IPTV, Revenues Will Top $40bn

written by: Richard Kastelein

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Published on Wednesday, 07 July 2010 17:38

According to the latest figures from Informa Telecoms & Media, the Asia Pacific TV region can expect significant growth in both Digital TV and IPTV usage over the next five years - which is surely good news for the middleware and IPTV sector - who have seen their decade long quest (braked by the sluggish wait for technology and reach) to converge TV and the Web challenged by CE manufacturers, Cable and Satellite providers over the past couple of years. This is great news for convergent media and future TV  in general - and will likely provide ample opportunities for Social TV, TV Apps and TV Widget developers worldwide.

In a document released by Informa on July 7, 2010, called Asia Pacific TV market achieves twin milestones, Adam Thomas, Media Research Manager and lead analyst on the research said:

"By 2015 there will be well over 400 million digital TV homes, including 40 million taking IPTV, which in turn will generate revenues of more than $40 billion."

And just last month, two significant milestones were surpassed, with the region already exceeding 150 million digital TV homes and leaping over 10 million IPTV households.

“While globally IPTV has failed to make any real impact it does remain important in the Asia Pacific region,” added Thomas. “We expect IPTV subscribers to grow by 25 million over the next five years, which means that it will become a significant rival to cable and DTH in some markets, notably via SingTel’s Mio TV in Singapore and Korea Telecom’s Qook in South Korea.”

The transfer to Digital TV is not easy in all markets - particularly the Chinese - but the government is getting behind the shift.

“In the cable sector in particular, subscribers are taking some convincing of the need to upgrade from analogue to digital. Although there is good news in China where the government’s proactive approach to converting analogue to digital is promoting upgrades,” Thomas said.

Informa Telecoms & Media is forecasting that a 21% digital TV penetration rate at end-2009 will increase to 54% by end-2015. By 2015, digital penetration will have reached 100% in four markets (Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Singapore), with another four expected to have achieved a penetration rate of 70% or more (Japan, Malaysia, South Korea and Taiwan).

Digital TV penetration (%)

Source: Informa Telecoms & Media.