Malaysia pay TV segment expects minimal growth in coming years

Malaysia’s pay TV services revenue is set for sluggish growth in the coming years.

According to GlobalData, the country’s pay TV sector will only grow from US$1.07 billion in 2019 to US$1.08 billion in 2024 – a CAGR of only 0.2%.

This is partly because the ARPU in the country will drop between 2019-2021 with only negligible growth over 2022-24 as OTT video services put pressure on traditional pay TV operators.

One positive however is that while the effect of the coronavirus pandemic is expected to slow down growth, its impact on the segment will be relatively mild.

Deepa Dhingra, Telecom Analyst at GlobalData, said: “DTH will remain the leading pay-TV technology in Malaysia over 2019-2024, but its share of the total pay-TV service subscription will decline with growing adoption of IPTV services. Growth in IPTV subscriptions is majorly driven by the rising adoption of multi-play bundles with integrated IPTV access offered by operators.

“Astro Malaysia is expected to lead the pay TV service market over 2019-2024, supported by its strong foothold in the DTH segment. The operator is driving its pay-TV subscription base by promoting a wide range of competitive DTH packages to meet specific customer demands. Through its broadband bundled plans, Astro also offers IPTV services for monthly tariff starting MYR98.95 (€20.29).”