Growth in IPTV subscriptions to sustain pay TV market in China

Thursday, September 26th, 2019
GlobalData logo

Mobile data to be leading revenue contributor to China’s telecom and pay-TV market through 2023, says GlobalData

Mobile data will be the largest revenue-contributing segment to the China’s telecom and pay-TV market between 2018 and 2023, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

GlobalData’s report, ‘China Country Intelligence Report’, states that the total telecom and pay-TV services revenue in China is poised to grow at a moderate compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.0% during 2018-2023, mainly supported by the rising adoption of fixed broadband, fixed voice and mobile data services.

China Telecom and Pay TV Services CAGR - 2018-2023

The revenue share of mobile data services in China’s telecom market is expected to grow from 34% in 2018 to 37% by the end of 2023. The growth will be supported by the widespread adoption of 4G services and the planned commercial launch of 5G services in 2020.

According to the report, the average monthly mobile data usage will increase from 2.6GB in 2018 to about 9.9GB by 2023, driven by rising consumption of high-bandwidth online video and social media services over smartphones.

Deepa Dhingra, Telecom Analyst at GlobalData, says: “4G will remain the most adopted wireless network technology throughout the forecast period due to the growing availability of low-cost (under US$100) 4G-enabled smartphones from domestic manufacturers such as Xiamoi, Huawei and Oppo, and the widespread availability of LTE network.

“With all the major MNOs carrying out 5G trails using test frequencies awarded by the regulator, GlobalData expects commercial 5G services to be available in China by 2020, and account for about 11.4% of total mobile subscriptions by 2023-end.”

Fixed broadband segment will register the fastest revenue growth over the forecast period, driven by robust increase in high-speed fiber-to-the-home/building (FTTH/B) subscriptions.

In addition, the government initiatives to expand broadband Internet access to underserved areas will also drive fixed broadband penetration and support revenue growth in the segment.

Mobile voice revenue, on the other hand, will decline over the forecast period due to drop in monthly mobile voice usage amid rising substitution of mobile voice services with domestic OTT communication applications such as WeChat.

In the pay-TV market, GlobalData expects that the robust growth in Internet Protocol television (IPTV) subscriptions will help offset subscription losses in the cable TV segment and sustain growth in overall pay-TV service revenues through 2023.

Dhingra concludes: “Operators will continue to focus on strengthening position in the IPTV segment through their IPTV integrated multi-play bundled plans.”