Market Trends

According to NSR’s new report, Global Assessment of Satellite Supply & Demand (GASD), 6th Edition, commercial satellite operators saw a very good year in 2008 with revenues up substantially. More importantly, most satellite operators have yet to report any substantial damage from the global economic crisis and, assuming recovery is solidly in place by the end of 2009, it appears that they will largely escape unscathed. There is still some risk because satellite capacity leasing is historically a trailing indicator of economic strength, yet the majority of the business is built on TV watching, and this market has only increased in the last year.

Strategy Analytics and D. I. S. Consulting announced at the IBC 2009 show in Amsterdam that their latest prediction for the global broadcast and professional media production market heralds a return to growth in 2010. After a severe downturn in most industry segments during 2009, the analysts expect global revenues to increase by 4.8% next year. The results was presented at Strategy Analytics’ annual Analyst Breakfast during this year’s IBC in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on Sunday 13th September.

Research from Media Partners Asia (MPA) shows that the top 40 pay-TV operators in Asia added an aggregate of 5.8 mil. net new subscribers during the six months to end-June, 2009, taking their combined customer base to 65.3 mil., around a third of the installed pay-TV base across the region. MPA forecasts indicate that these leading operators will end the year with 70.7 mil. customers, implying annual net additions of 11.3 mil. and close to 20% annual growth.

Southeast Asia’s (SEA) mobile users are expected to hit 453.3 million subscribers by the close of this year, growing 18.4 percent over 2008. Billings are estimated to grow by 13.6 percent year-on-year to top US$32 billion by year-end.

The Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) has released new data on Asian Satellite demand to coincide with the annual CASBAA Satellite Industry Forum in Singapore last June.

The Broadband Forum announced at CommunicAsia in Singapore the latest broadband and IPTV statistics, which show impressive growth in the face of the global economic downturn. Its report, prepared for the Forum by industry analysts Point Topic (GBS database at http://point-topic.com/home/gbs/), shows that broadband grew by 16.6 million lines globally in the last quarter alone, with more than three million being added across North America - while IPTV continues to expand strongly.

The bleak market outlook in the last quarter of 2008 did not seem to deter the growth of pay TV. Service operators, especially those in mature high-speed Internet economies – many of which are in the Asia-Pacific region – continue to strive towards providing interactive bi-directional television. According to new pay-TV market data from ABI Research, APAC will continue leading subscription growth, delivering a 37% CAGR (compound annual growth rate) over the next three years.

Ovum’s newly released mobile broadband forecasts show that users accessing the Internet via mobile broadband enabled laptops and handsets will generate revenues of US $137 billion globally in 2014, over 450% more than in 2008. However, operators will need to content themselves with the fact that user growth will be far faster than revenue growth, meaning more users and more data traffic but declining ARPUs.

A report by Research and Markets entitled Taiwan - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband revealed that Taiwan has the second highest cable and satellite penetration rate in Asia with nearly 90 percent.

The Dell’Oro Group reported that the IPTV subscriber base grew by 3.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2008 to reach 23 million subscribers at the end of last year, nearly double the number at the end of 2007. While Europe, Middle East, and Africa remained the largest market for unit shipments of IPTV set-top boxes, North America drove the market’s revenue growth in the fourth quarter as AT&T and Verizon continued to aggressively promote their television services.