Sluggish growth projected for India’s pay-TV market
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Joseph O'Halloran
| 22 September 2020
While the country’s streaming market is steaming ahead, lethargic is the description is being attributed to growth in India’s pay-TV arena over the next five years says research from GlobalData.

GlobalData pay TV 22Sep2020In its India Telecom Operators Country Intelligence Report, the analyst calculates that due to mainly to user substitution to over-the-top (OTT) platforms for new content during the Covid-19 restrictions, total pay-TV services revenue in India will likely grow at a CAGR of 0.7% from US$3.19bn in 2020 to US$3.30bn in 2025.

Furthermore, GlobalData’s study reveals that though pay-TV services revenues will decline by 0.6% year-on-year in 2020, the projected rise in the direct-to-home (DTH) and IPTV) subscriptions will support growth in the overall pay-TV services market over 2020-2025.

India’s pay-TV market is described as being highly fragmented, with over a 50% of share in the total pay-TV subscription being held by several smaller players in 2020. In response to the threats to their business, the country’s pay-TV operators have been focusing on offering OTT content as a bundled service with pay-TV plans to drive pay-TV services adoption.

The study also found that cable will be the leading pay-TV technology in India throughout the forecast period, followed by DTH. IPTV subscriptions are set to grow at the fastest CAGR of 19.4% during 2020-2025, supported by increasing fixed broadband penetration in the country which supports delivery of IPTV services.

The India Telecom Operators Country Intelligence Report also noted that Dish TV will lead the pay-TV market in India during 2020-2025, supported by what the analyst called its “outstanding” reach in the DTH segment and strong focus on expansion of pay-TV services portfolio with higher quality localised content. Deepa Dhingra, telecom analyst at GlobalData, noted that it recently added six new HD channels to its DTH platform targeting users from the Southern region.