According to research by In-Sat, revenues generated from HDTV content in Asia Pacific will grow from $3.67bn this year to more than $8bn by 2011 – despite a current shortage in locally made HD content.
"Increasing acceptance of western culture in Asia means that the importation of international video content will offset the shortage of HD content developed in the region," wrote In-Stat analyst Alice Zhang in a recent white paper.
Japan and Australia are broadcasting homemade HD content, but most other countries are relying on imported programmes.
Only a small percentage of the region's three billion population have HDTV sets. "There were 9.9 million TV households in the Asia-Pacific region receiving and watching HDTV programming at the end of 2006," said Zhang.
"All of these households were located in just five countries: Australia, China, Japan, South Korea and Singapore."
The 2008 Beijing Olympic games has helped boost HDTV interest in Asia's most populated nation, China, and the government has issued HDTV licences to two local broadcasters.
"In the future, we expect China to contribute heavily to HD market growth due to its huge pay-TV subscription base and strong government support for the service," said Zhang.
Related stories
Global HDTV market will cross 50m units by 2008
IMS forecasts strong global growth for HDTV
Beijing olympics to attract 4 billion viewers
From: Sony to double BRAVIA LCD TV production for growing European demand