The total pay-TV services revenue in Malaysia is forecast to grow at a sluggish pace from US$1.07bn in 2019 to US$1.08bn in 2024, reflecting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of a marginal 0.2%, supported by a steady rise in the adoption of DTH and IPTV services, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

GlobalData’s Malaysia Telecom Operators Country Intelligence Report reveals that the aggregate average revenue per user (ARPU) from pay-TV services will decline until 2021 and then show negligible growth over 2022-2024  as competition from OTT video services put pressure on pay-TV service providers to adopt competitive pricing. Moreover, the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 is expected to slow down growth in the pay-TV segment. However, the impact of the pandemic on the segment will be relatively mild.

Deepa Dhingra, Telecom Analyst at GlobalData, says: “Direct-to-Home (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 Internet Protocol television (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.”