INSIGHTanalysis: Media Healthcheck – March 2005
During March, television issues were paramount within industry research, with the month starting off with the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) publishing its latest Trends in Television Report.
Commenting on the results, Lynne Robinson, IPA research director said: “The latest TV Trends report shows that the overall level of television viewing in the last quarter of 2004, and 2004 as whole, was fairly constant. The major point of interest in the data is the continual growth in digital homes, which now constitutes 54% of the television universe. This growth is spearheaded by digital terrestrial.”
Digital television penetration was revealed to be gaining in strength for the Asia-Pacific region, with Informa Media predicting it would reach 606 million households by 2010, an increase of 130 million since 1995 (see Strong Digital TV Penetration Forecast For Asia Pacific).
The Informa report, Asia Pacific Television – Ninth Edition predicts that out of the total for 2010, 46% of consumers will subscribe to digital television via cable, 3% to digital DHT packages, 2% to broadband television services, while 3% will receive DTT signals.
Personal video recorders (PVRs), also came into the limelight during March, particularly in the US, with PVR manufacturer, TiVo, signing a eight-year deal with major cable operator, Comcast Corp, to supply customised PVRs to its subscribers, retaining its dominance of the US PVR market (see Popularity Of E-Shopping Continues To Grow)
Research published during the month by market research and consultancy firm, Parks Associates, predicted that satellite television providers will increasingly lose their edge over cable companies by 2006 (see Cable To Match Satellite In DVR Distribution By 2006).
Parks Associates feel that satellite companies will not be able to overcome the advantages that their cable counterparts have in offering customers a complete bundle of fully integrated services.
Towards the end of March, it was revealed that Microsoft had completed a series of deals with telecoms operators in Western Europe and the US, meaning that 75% of fixed phone lines will use Microsoft software to access television services via broadband (see Microsoft Deal Set To Dominate IPTV Market).
The deal, thought to be worth at least an initial $10 billion, has ensured that Microsoft’s software will dominate the world of converged broadband internet and television.
Market research firm, In-Stat, revealed estimates during March stating that high definition television (HDTV)would hit 15.5 million households worldwide by the end of 2005, with penetration forecast to reach 52 million by 2009 (see Global HDTV Penetration To Reach 52 Million By 2009).
The end of March saw media regulator Ofcom reveal that digital television penetration in the UK has hit almost 60% of households, showing that in the last quarter of 2004 59.4% of homes received digital signals, an increase of 3.5% from 55.9% at 30 September 2004 (see Digital Penetration Reaches Almost 60% Of UK Homes).
Ofcom’s Digital Television Update for the fourth quarter of 2004 reveals that, by 31 December 2004, the total number of digital television households grew by 914,980 to 14.77 million, representing growth over the quarter of 6.6%. BSkyB added 177,000 subscribers in Q4 2004, bringing its total for 2004 up to 7,26 million.