INSIGHTanalysis: Media Healthcheck – September 2007
In September, research from the Digital Radio Development Bureau (DRDB) predicted that household penetration of DAB digital radio in the UK is set to reach 58.5% by the end of 2011.
Moving to digital TV, Ofcom’s latest report revealed that household take-up of digital television, via Freeview, digital satellite or cable TV, has risen to almost 85% to the end of June 2007 (see Digital TV Penetration Reaches Almost 85%).
A further 1.1% of homes now subscribe to analogue cable, taking the proportion of homes with multi-channel television at the end of Q2 2007 to 85%, said the regulator.
e-Media Institute, meanwhile, published a report which showed that digital television in Western Europe reached a decisive milestone in September, overtaking the analogue system for the first time.
There are now about 83 million households in the region’s 20 countries receiving digital television signals out of a total of 166 million TV households, saID e-Media Institute. At the end of June 2007, families equipped to watch digital TV made up 48% of the total in Western Europe (see Half Of families In Western Europe Now Receive Digital TV).
According to a forecast from Magna Global, there will be 40.4 million DVR subscribers households (34.8% of TV households) in the US by the end of 2011.
By 2011, Magna Global expects that true video-on-demand (distinct from simulated VOD) will reach 62.3 million US households (approximately 53.6% of television households and 95.2% of all cable and telco subscribers) (see US DVR Subscriber Households To Increase).
A forecast from Juniper Research predicted that worldwide annual consumer spending on mobile broadcast TV services will exceed $6.6 billion by 2012, with nearly 120 million mobile users in more than 40 countries expected to receive broadcast TV services by 2012 (see Global Consumer Spending On Mobile TV To Increase).
Advertising will contribute an increasing proportion to overall mobile TV revenues, says Juniper Research, but in most cases will provide a supplementary revenue stream, with most services relying on both subscriptions and pay-per-view for the majority of revenues.
The middle of the month saw comScore release data showing that nearly 75% of US internet users watched an average of three hours of online video during July (see Three In Four US Internet Users Watch Online Video in July).
In total, nearly 134 million Americans viewed online video in July, or approximately three in four US internet users.
Point Topic published a report showing that the market for consumer broadband value-added services (BVAS) grew by 81% during 2006. With over $16 billion in revenues, consumer BVAS became increasingly essential to the financial success of broadband services (see Consumer BVAS revenues up 81% in 2006).
Altogether, said Point Topic, consumer BVAS brought in more than 25% as much revenue as basic broadband access during 2006.