APAC SVOD set to grow fourfold

The Asia Pacific region will have 157.78 million subscription video on demand subscribers by 2021, up from 41.68 million in 2015 and 76.12 million expected by end-2016, according to Digital TV Research. However, Netflix’s high price will mean it only acquires a small portion of the overall market, according to the research outfit.

Digital TV Research’s Asia Pacific SVOD Forecasts report predicts that the SVOD total in the region will approach 100 million by end-2017.

Rapid smartphone subscription growth means that China will account for 47% of the 2021 total, up from 38% in 2015, according to Digital TV Research. From the 82 million additions between 2016 and 2021, China will supply 34 million, Japan nine million and India 15 million.

By 2021, 17.5% of the region’s TV households across the 17 countries studied will subscribe to an SVOD platform, up from only 5.1% by end-2015 and an expected 9.1% by the end of this year. Penetration rates in 2021 will vary from 53.5% in Australia, with four countries above 50%, to 8% in Pakistan.

Simon Murray, Principal Analyst at Digital TV Research, said: “Although Netflix, Amazon, Iflix, HOOQ and Viu will enjoy rapid growth, they will collectively only account for 16% of the region’s SVOD subscribers by 2021. Netflix is forecast to have 7.59 million subscribers in the region by 2021, up from 3.17 million at end-2016. Australia, Japan, Korea and New Zealand will together account for nearly three-quarters of the total. Netflix is considered expensive in most other countries. We do not believe that Netflix will launch as a standalone platform in China.”