Digital television (DTV) adoption will show strong growth over the next two years as consumers demand enhanced features, greater breadth of content and bundled communications offerings, according to a new report by Datamonitor.
The
Western European and US Digital TV Adoption, 2008 (Strategic Focus) report found that a further key driver in the transition to DTV services is the switch-off of analogue transmission in the US and Western Europe.
Chris Khouri, analyst for media and broadcasting at Datamonitor and the report’s author, said: “DTV will grow an average of 12% year-on-year, with particularly strong adoption in the near term as broadcasters terminate analogue terrestrial television.
“In 2007 there were 158 million households using digital television services in Western Europe and the US. By 2012, Datamonitor expects there to be an estimated 274 million digital TV households in these regions.”
Datamonitor’s report covers uptake of DTV in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.
At the end of 2007, 54% of homes in Europe and the US had some form of DTV service. This will grow to 88% by the end of 2012 primarily due to the significant increase in digital terrestrial television (DTT) households.
Earlier this month, Informa Telecoms & Media revealed that digital TV penetration of Western European households broke the 50% barrier in 2007, ending the year at 54%, up from 42% at the end of 2006 (see Western European Digital TV Penetration To Reach 54%).
DTT households in Europe and the US will increase from 26 million in 2007 to 55 million by 2012, said Datamonitor, illustrating an average yearly growth rate of 16%. As a whole, however, there is expected to be a significant migration away from free-to-air services in the medium-to-long term, as bundled offerings, enhanced features and premium content grow in importance to consumers.
Over the next three years, all DTV platforms will show strong growth as consumers transition to digital services. The two fastest growing platforms in Europe and the US will be digital cable and DTT. Datamonitor expects they will achieve net household increases of 50 million and 30 million, respectively.
With regard to other platforms, IPTV services will show the strongest average yearly growth at around 28%, reaching almost 23 million households by 2012. Despite satellite services illustrating very moderate growth of 5.5%, there will be a 20 million increase in subscribers by 2012, reaching around 86 million households.
Ofcom’s recent Digital Progress Report said that over two-thirds (68%) of the 60 million television sets in the UK are now digitally linked via cable, satellite or digital terrestrial (see 68% Of UK TV Sets Now Digital).
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