Asia-Pacific Broadcasting (APB) Satellite Special 2018 | Page 11

HTS a hit in Asia-Pacific
An update on the video
broadcast market
BY ALAN CRISP
T
he video broadcast market in Asia
remains one of solid growth, with
channel counts, capacity leases,
and pay-TV subscribers on the up and
up, albeit at less dynamic levels than have
been seen historically.
At the same time, a number of
headwinds will cause market erosion
in East Asia, such as greater levels of
competition with over-the-top (OTT)
platforms and increased channel
encoding. Simultaneously, increasing
levels of disposable income by citizens
in South-east Asia and South Asia mean
that there is significant room for increase
in demand with many new first-time
subscribers paying for direct-to-home
(DTH), cable TV and IPTV subscriptions.
NSR expects opportunities to be strong
in the short term through to the long term,
if you know where to look.
Growth recently, however, has
been rather concentrated by a handful
of players, with new platforms being
broadcast in Asia, and especially in South-
east Asia seeing strong development
in recent years. Much of this is coming
from the opening up of countries such as
Laos and Myanmar. The latter alone has
seen multiple new platforms launched
over the past couple of years, with
several operators benefiting from multi-
transponder contracts.
In addition, Indonesia especially, is
expected to see some greater demand
through the sheer size of the country
and number of households getting a TV
for the first time. However, this market
also sees some saturation, with several
DTH platforms operating in the red.
The Philippines provides perhaps the
best long-term combination of market
size, economic growth prospects, and a
relatively undeveloped pay-TV market.
In terms of technologies moving
forward, top-down demand for 4K/Ultra
HD (UHD) content — while being more
prevalent in North America and Western
Europe — is adding to satellite capacity
requirements in Asia, in particular
East Asia. Japanese public broadcaster
NHK even intends to broadcast the
2020 Olympic Games from Tokyo in 8K.
However, NSR does not believe that the
enormous demand requirements for 8K
content will result in opportunities across
the video broadcast value chain elsewhere.
On the other end of the spectrum, it is
important to remember that the majority
of channels are currently broadcast in
standard definition in Asia, meaning there
is significant capacity growth potential in
the longer term.
Despite some gloom in some more-
developed video markets, the very real
value of satellite in terms of point-to-
multipoint content carriage is not going
away. The lack of high-speed connectivity
for many residents in South-east Asia is
resulting in limited forms of competition
with OTT platforms like we have
witnessed elsewhere, and increasing levels
of disposable income are also driving
subscribers to DTH and pay-TV content.
However, satellite operators and pay-
TV platforms alike will need to enter the
market sooner rather than later, as the
window for new entrants is slowly closing
as the region inches towards maturity.
 Despite some
gloom in some
more-developed
video markets, the
very real value of
satellite in terms of
point-to-multipoint
content carriage is
not going away. 
Alan Crisp is
senior analyst
at Northern Sky
Research (NSR),
an international
market research
and consulting
firm specialising
in telecommuni-
cations
technology, with
a particular focus
on satellite and
wireless networks,
emerging technology and media applications.
An
Supplement
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