Pay-TV revenues in Asia Pacific will be US$12 billion higher in 2018 (US$43.9 billion total) than in 2012, according to a report from Digital TV Research. It also estimates that pay-TV revenues (subscriptions and on-demand) will grow by US$2.1 billion in 2013 to US$33.9 billion.

Simon Murray, the author of the report, said, “China overtook Japan to become the most lucrative pay-TV market in 2012. Pay-TV revenues will more than double in five countries [Indonesia (tripling), Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam] between 2012 and 2018, but will fall in Hong Kong and South Korea.”

The Asia Pacific region is undergoing a rapid digital TV conversion that will see penetration increase by 440 million homes between 2012 and 2018 – of which, 128 million will come from DTT. The number of analogue terrestrial homes, however, will fall by 204 million.

Murray added, “Despite the rapid conversion, digital TV will still have plenty of room for growth for some time to come. Only six of the15 countries forecast in this report will have fully converted to digital by 2018. By then, Indonesia and the Philippines will have digital penetration of only 42% and 34% respectively. Indonesia will still have 29 million analog homes, and India 31million.”