Research pegs IPTV, digital TV to continue upward trend in Asia Pacific

The Asia Pacific region has notched over 150 million digital TV and 10 million IPTV connections, says a anew survey from Informa Telecoms and Media.

Adam Thomas, media research manager and lead analyst on the research, says, ''There are increasingly positive signs for digital TV in the region. Competition between the platforms is intensifying and this is pushing digital upgrades up the agenda of many operators.''

2009 saw more than 35 million homes upgrade from analog to digital and 26 million subscrbers opted for pay TV including 14 million in the cable segment, 9 million in DTH and 3 million opting for IPTV connections.

''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,'' Thomas adds.
Informa Telecoms and Media forecasts the digital TV penetration rate to increase to 54 per cent by end 2015 from the 21 per cent recorded by 2009 end.

It also forecasts the penetration to reach 100 per cent in Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Singapore, and 70 per cent  in Japan, Malaysia, South Korea and Taiwan by 2015.

''While globally IPTV has failed to make any real impact it does remain important in the Asia-Pacific region,'' Thomas explains. ''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.''

''Despite this generally positive picture, our research found that digital upgrades will not be easy to achieve in some markets.,'' says Thomas. ''In the cable sector in particular, subscribers are taking some convincing of the need to upgrade from analog to digital.

Although there is good news in China where the government's proactive approach to converting analog to digital is promoting upgrades.''

Digital TV penetration ( per cent)