© Financial Express
The Indian pay TV market is likely to generate a turnover of $10 billion (Rs 42,000 crore) by the next three years as against $4.2 billion (close to Rs 16,500 crore) in the current fiscal following increased digitisation of the cable delivery system and the deep pay TV penetration. The pay TV will reach 84% of the cable & satellite households by 2011 from 61% at present. Within the next three years, there will be around 107 million cable homes.
According to a survey conducted by Hong Kong-based independent organisation, Media Partners Asia (MPA), over 90% of the TV homes in the country will be enjoying pay TV by 2015, of which 37% will have digital set-top boxes (STB). “It is being watched that mandatory and voluntary conditional access system (CAS) are boosting digitisation, and the number of model digital cable subscribers will grow from a projected 1.35 million in December this year to 12.2 million by the next three years. It will touch 22.6 million in 2015”, the report said.
According to the report, around 1.2 million new subscribers opted for digital pay TV during the first quarter of this year, boosted by the rollout of the CAS and aggressive marketing strategies of a couple of DTH (direct-to-home) service providers. “The entire industry is banking on the market. Right from a content provider to the last-mile-operator-everybody has to depend on consumers. That has resulted in the growth of this industry”, said Albert Almeida, executive vice-president and business head of Sony Entertainment Television India Pvt Ltd.