SINGAPORE: The Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (Casbaa) has released the latest figures and forecasts for Asia Pacific's pay-TV industry.

The figures can be found in their newly launched Casbaa Asia Cable & Satellite Guide 2003.

According to Casbaa, the cable and satellite (C&S) industry in Asia Pacific is set to grow from the current 157 million C&S subscribers to over 228 million subscribers in the next eight years, registering a 45 per cent growth rate from 2002 to 2010.

China and India will continue to be the key markets in 2010, with 128 million subscribers in China and 53.35 million subscribers in India.

"Second Asia is producing a lot of local content. Audiences here are showing a lot of preference for films," he said.

Digital TV set to change the industry landscape
Digital TV has been singled out as the hottest industry development for the next decade. CASBAA forecasts that there will be a dramatic growth in the number of households with digital TV from the existing 7.9 million homes in 2002 to 166 million by 2010.

"The long-held potential of the region is now coming to fruition. Digital television will herald a boom for technology manufacturers, cable and satellite systems operators, programmers and advertisers. Furthermore, digital technology will help to combat piracy, by increasing the complexity and costs of decoding pay-TV signals," said Casbaa CEO Simon Twiston Davies.

"Digital cable services were only just beginning to be deployed in 2002 in Asia Pacific," said Robert Wilson, Casbaa director for media & research. "But the trend is unstoppable. Digital TV will create greater choice and quality, leading to an exponential increase in subscription TV revenues in the region by 2010."

Subscription TV revenues to double
The Casbaa report states that the total Asia-Pacific subscription TV revenues are forecast to rise by more than 58 per cent, from $13 billion in 2002 to almost $31 billion in 2010. Japan, China, India and South Korea will account for 81 per cent of the total subscription TV revenues in 2010.

By 2010, cable will bring in more than two-thirds of subscription TV revenues, with direct-to-home (DTH) satellite broadcasts accounting for 19 per cent, and telephony-based services accounting for 12 per cent. This immense potential of subscription TV revenues is a result of the huge growth of TV households expected in the region. There are currently 450 million TV households in Asia Pacific, and the figure is set to hit 555 million TV households by 2010.

Of the total TV households in 2010, 53 per cent of the households are expected to subscribe to either cable services (both analogue and digital), DTH packages, telephony-based services and Digital Terrestrial TV (DTT) signals.

This leaves 47 per cent of TV households that will only receive analogue terrestrial signals, demonstrating the growth potential of Asian subscription and digital systems even after 2010.

"The increasing penetration of pay-TV services will add dramatically to the attraction of cable and satellite services as an advertising vehicle. Today, we see 15% of the TV ad spend coming our way. There will soon be a major shift in the allocation of this ad spend with pay-TV taking a larger proportion. This will happen as terrestrial networks delivered by traditional telephone networks and satellite platforms meet us on an even playing field. The best is yet to come," said Twiston Davies.

This new report has been jointly developed by Casbaa with research specialists, the Informa Media Group. The report is included in the Casbaa Asia Cable & Satellite Guide 2003 and Informa's Asia Pacific Television - 7th Edition, both of which will be launched at Casbaa Convention 2002, happening from December 4-5 in Singapore.

The report is sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers and co-sponsored by Nielsen Media Research, which assisted with provision of the data.

Digital TV Households (000)

Source: Informa Media Group
* excludes BS satellite

Subscription TV Revenues (US$ million)

Source: Informa Media Group
* excludes BS satellite