By 2005, Screen Digest forecasts that the UK will have 1.2 million users, a large share of the 3 million expected across Europe. VoD remains a relatively new and underdeveloped service in Europe. Screen Digest cites “plummeting values of cable and telecoms companies, the draining away of investor confidence and the huge debts caused by acquisition of third-generation (3G) mobile licences” as reasons why network operators have shied away from committing to VoD provision.
Setting aside these issues, trials of VoD in the USA have elicited a positive response from consumers, VoD is forecast to achieve 22% penetration of TV households in the USA, and this is thought to be a strong indicator of VoD take up around the world. The UK is set to lead Europe, becoming the second largest market in the world outside the USA.
Screen Digest believes that cable is likely to become the dominant platform for VoD, 90% of all current VoD services are provided via cable and it service providers are better equipped to offer better and wider services to consumers. Satellite operators are more restricted, technically, and are therefore pushing personal video recorder (PVR) services as an alternative.
In the future VoD services may be accessed via DSL lines but this is thought to be some years away yet.
