Informa Telecoms and Media’s latest forecast predicts that 67 million digital TV households will be added worldwide in 2008.
This figure will bring the worldwide total to 343 million, putting digital penetration of TV households at 24% by year-end.
The North American penetration rate will exceed 77%, with Western Europe at 63%. A further 62 million digital homes will be added to the total in 2009.
By 2013, half the world’s TV homes will receive digital signals – or 636 million households.
Simon Murray, author of the report, said: “This indicates that digital growth will accelerate as the decade progresses, especially outside North America and Western Europe. More than 293 million digital homes will be added between end-2008 and end-2013.”
China will be a major contributor to this increase, accounting for 79 million of the extra homes. Other significant rises will come in the US (30 million more), Japan (14 million) and India (26 million).
Murray added: “These four countries combined will take half the additional digital households. However, most countries will experience significant additions to their digital household total.”
Cable will be the main source of digital TV households, bringing in 290 million homes by 2013. Pay DTH will be the next most popular delivery system at 129 million. Digital cable overtook pay DTH during 2007. There will be 111 million DTT homes and 51 million freesat homes (both of which do not subscribe to cable, satellite or IPTV services) and 54 million households paying to receive IPTV signals.
However, Murray said: “627 million homes will still take analogue signals, so digital growth is likely to extend way beyond the forecast period. The North American market will be very close to complete digital conversion by 2013, with Western Europe also enjoying high rates. Penetration rates will vary considerably from one country to the next, even within more ‘developed’ regions such as Western Europe.”
More than a fifth of homes will take digital cable, with high penetration in North America boosting this figure. Digital DTH will be strong in North America and Europe, but less so elsewhere. DTT will be taken by 9% of global TV households, but will be as high as 34% of Western European homes. Free-to-air satellite will appear in 4% of global TV households.
Half the world’s TV households will receive digital signals by 2013, up from 24% at end-2007 and 29% at end-2008. North American penetration will reach 99% by 2013. By end-2007, the UK had the highest digital penetration rate, at 87%.
Ofcom’s 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).
Datamonitor recently published a report which forecast that 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 (see Strong Growth Forecast For Digital TV Adoption).
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