ASIA’S PHYSICAL ACTIVITY ECONOMY

Sports in Asia has been a booming industry, and Asia is set to lead the rest of the world in the value of this sector. The Global Wellness Institute estimated the value of Asia’s physical activity economy – which comprises of not just sports activities, but the enablers of sports i.e. sportswear, equipment and technology – to have been worth $240 billion in 2018. This meant that Asia’s physical activity economy was worth around 30% of the world market. The $240 billion was divided almost 50-50 into recreational physical activities and its enabling sectors

However, Asia’s sports industry will only continue growing bigger. Asia is expected to overtake the North American market (the only region bigger than it at the moment) as early as 2023 to be the world’s largest physical activity market. By 2023, the Asian market is projected to grow 9.2% annually and reach $373 billion in value. In the same time period Asia-Pacific will be accounting for 40% of the entire world’s themselves will drive almost one-third of the world’s growth. market growth. Most of this growth can be attributed to China and India, who by

ASIA’S LARGEST RECREATIONAL PHYSICAL ACTIVITY MARKETS

Asia’s recreational physical activity market is led by China, with a market valued at $109.3 billion and second globally only to the USA. However, four of the top ten and six of the top twenty largest markets worldwide hail from the Asia-Pacific, according to Global Wellness Institute. Notably, Japan is third worldwide with a $43.9 billion market. Even relatively small regions like Singapore and Hong Kong’s recreational physical activity markets perform admirably on the world stage.

Along with Hong Kong and Singapore, the top six Asian markets (who are all in the top 20 physical activity markets in the world) have highly developed physical activity markets. These mature markets have more intense competition between more established players. Their growth has also been driven by the active participation of their governments, who promote physical activity through public education programs. Some examples are South Korea’s Program 7330 and Singapore’s Active Health program. China itself has been experiencing explosive growth because of its government’s support through sports policies, the proliferation oof gyms and fitness 1 cities, and the widespread adoption of fitness apps and online platformstudios in its Tier s.

On the other hand, Southeast Asian countries (even Indonesia and Thailand, who are in Asia’s top 10 physical activity markets) generally have smaller markets, lower levels of participation and Asia’s lowest participation rate for the fitness industry. This indicates that there is plenty of room for growth in the region

ASIA’S UNDERDEVELOPED SPORTS EVENTS INDUSTRY

Despite the significant growth that can be seen in the remainder of Asia’s sports industry, there is still a segment within Asia that is at a less mature state. This is Asia’s sports events industry, which despite having 51.2% of the world’s share of sports events users, only accounts for 17.2% of its sports events revenues. One key issue is the low level of average revenue per user, or ARPU, in Asia. According to Statista, Asia’s ARPU is still at $28, or one-third of the worldwide average of $84. If Asia’s ARPU increases to the worldwide average, its industry can expand from jus $1.65 billion now to $4.95 billion!

TRENDS IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC (APAC) SPORTS MEDIA MARKET

In 11 key APAC markets (Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand), Rapid TV News claims that aggregate sports media revenues are expected to grow at a 6.7% CAGR from 2019 and reach $7.2 billion by 2024. Sports TV revenues are expected to remain flat and reach $4.3 billion 2024, while over-the-top (OTT) providers are projected to experience immense growth and reach $2.9 billion by 2024 after growing at a CAGR of 22% from 2019. Furthermore, OTT platforms are predicted to almost double its share of sports media revenues from 21% in 2019 to 40% in 2024, while simultaneously doubling its share of sports media monetization outside of China from 12% to 23% in 2024.

Regionally, sports rights investments in China, India, Australia and Japan are being driven by a strong domestic sports ecosystem while being supported by premium international rights for football, basketball and baseball. In 2019, football had the largest share of rights value in APAC by sport, with 28%, and the Premier League was APAC’s top property by media rights value with a value of over $600 billion.