Hong Kong – The deep economic crisis eating into ad revenues and limiting subs growth; a shift in media consumption toward on-line and on-demand; and the demands of a current cycle of competition and digitization are cited as the key challenges facing regional pay TV broadcasters and content providers in Media Partners Asia’s (MPA) Asia Pacific Pay-TV and Broadband Markets 2009. In spite of these growing challenges, MPA believes that originators of local content, especially those catering to Chinese and Indian audiences, will continue to remain relevant and profitable. However the outlook for English-language broadcasters isn’t as favorable as distribution platforms in key markets invest more aggressively in local and non-linear programming and curb spend on regional and international TV channels. The growth of digital distribution has seen multiple broadcasters proliferate in key common genres. MPA forecasts that revenues for pay-TV broadcasters in Asia Pacific grew at an impressive 16% in 2008 but will decelerate to 8% in 2009 with a 12% increase in affiliate fees offset by only 4% ad sales growth. Over the medium term, MPA sees total revenues growing at a CAGR of 10% to reach around US$20 billion by 2013 and 8% over the next decade to reach US$26 billion. The largest revenue opportunities will emerge in Greater China, India, Japan, Korea, Australasia, Malaysia and Indonesia. MPA analysis of the top pay-TV channel revenue generators in Asia Pacific, which have about 40% market share across the region, indicates that market leaders typically converge around the following categories: originators of Indian and Chinese language content; top tier sports, movie and news channels; non-toxic factual brands such as Discovery, which remains amongst the most profitable English-language broadcasters; and popular English entertainment brands. Significantly, the ad downturn and fragmentation has meant that a few broadcasters no longer feature in the top 10 including top local brands in Korea and Taiwan. Overall, profitability and margins have been limited by rising cost and competition as well as the ad downturn. This is most notably evident at Star and increasingly, Zee Entertainment and TVB, say MPA.