In India, grey market for cable TV services at $ 1.1 billion

Televisionpoint.com Correspondent | Hong Kong
A new data for Asia's pay-TV market, showing 71 million digital pay-TV households out of 300 million pay-TV subscriptions across Asia, has been announced by the Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA).

"The increase in digital pay-TV market penetration represents a tipping point for our industry in Asia." said Marcel Fenez, chairman, CASBAA.

"This is especially relevant with regards to the control of revenue leakage since digital pay-TV creates far greater transparency, what might be termed a 'digital cushion', which can slow the growth of pay-TV piracy, while accurately tracking pay-TV subscriptions," said Lee Beasley, media and entertainment head, Standard Chartered Bank - Hong Kong.

The Asian pay-TV markets with the lowest level of revenue leakage are generally those with the highest percentages of digital deployment, according to the findings of the 2008 pay-TV piracy survey, conducted by CASBAA in collaboration with the creative industries division of Standard Chartered Bank.

"For instance, Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Japan, Singapore and New Zealand are almost 100% digital and have the lowest piracy levels." added Beasley.

CASBAA also highlighted that digital infrastructure provides pay-TV operators and cable channels the greatest opportunity to deliver sophisticated high-value pay-TV packages to consumers, including HDTV and interactive offerings.

Just as importantly, the mega-markets of India and China are demonstrating an increased pick-up for digital pay-TV services. India now has 8.5 million digital pay-TV households, while China represents 34 million digital cable connections.

"India's digital pay-TV market has been driven by the recent exceptional growth in the digital DTH market but, at last, with 1.7 million digital cable subscriptions, India is finally taking off," said Fenez.

While the pay-TV market has grown to almost 300 million subscribers across the region, the net cost of pay-TV piracy in 2008 will top $ 1.7 billion this year, up from $ 1.5 billion in 2007.

"Nevertheless, this is in line with market growth while digital deployment should slow piracy as net subscriptions continue to grow," said Beasley.

In India, the grey market for cable TV services has grown proportionally to the rapid growth in the overall market, topping $ 1.1 billion. This grey market in India largely consists of cable connections that are under reported by cable operators.