Digital Asia

Digital pay-TV is set to grow, particularly in China, Japan and South Korea, while India could reach a digital penetration of 40% by 2015, forecasts say. China leads on the back of GDP growth projected to hit 9.2% by 2015, though again, India’s GDP could be 8.3% by then.

With more penetration, pay-TV advertising revenue is forecast to grow by over 70% from now until 2015. India, China, Indonesia, and Thailand will post the biggest increases. (Informa has already reported that Asia Pacific became the world’s second biggest TV ad market earlier than anticipated.)

According to Nielsen, pay-TV viewers globally grew 34% from 2008 to 2010. In the US, its Cross Platform Report for Q1 2011 noted that per person viewership was up 22 minutes per month over the same year-earlier period; it also found that 91% of TV homes were pay-TV subscribers, clear proof that Americans are willing to pay for quality content.

Traditional TV is still the viewing preference in the US, at 158 minutes watched per month; internet viewing stood at 25 minutes per month, mobile at 4.

Of the 613m digital TV households to be added globally between 2010 and 2016, Digital TV Research says 388m will be in the Asia Pacific region, bringing the regional total to 607m. By 2015, other sources say pay TV homes should reach over 480m households, up from 380m today.