China takes IPTV to new levels in Asia

China is continuing to drive the lion’s share of customers and revenues to the online video industry in Asia Pacific. In new research, the forecast is that China will account for 85% of subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) customers and 78% of online video sector revenues by 2022.

According to researchers Media Partners Asia (MPA) the growth in the Chinese market is driven by its large-scale investment in original and acquired over-the-top (OTT) content, including early and exclusive windows, and a weak market for traditional pay-TV, creating an opportunity for premium content distribution and monetization through online video.

Across Asia,  online video revenues are set to grow at a 21% CAGR across the region between 2017 and 2022, climbing from US$17.6 billion in 2017 to US$46 billion by 2022, according to the MPA research.

Japan, Australia, India, Korea and Taiwan are the next largest markets after China for online video revenues and distribution, the market research analysts found. Factors fuelling the growth in these countries include a robust payment infrastructure, the growth of advertising-funded platforms and the steady rise of premium, subscription-based platforms.

However, in Southeast Asia growth will be stunted due to piracy and a less prevalent payment infrastructure; however, SVOD revenues will grow rapidly from a very low base.

“Advances in telecoms and payment infrastructure continue to point the way forward for the online video sector in Asia Pacific, although business models and regulations continue to evolve in a sector that’s still nascent in most territories,” said MPA Executive Director, Vivek Couto.

Back in China although advertising supports the majority of China’s video streaming services, subscription services are on course to attain 33% of the sector’s revenue in 2017, compared to 18% in 2015 and 26% in 2016, said MPA.

The MPA forecast that online video advertising sector in the Asia Pacific region will grow from under US$12 billion in 2017 to more than $25 billion by 2022. Excluding China, this opportunity represents $7 billion by 2022 compared to $3 billion in 2017.

Couto added that the branded destinations would increase rapidly within the online video ecosystem as platforms and operators forge partnerships with content players across IPTV platforms.