Digital TV Equipment To See Growth Recovery In Europe

The group forecasts that the European STB market will generate revenues of $7.1 billion (â‚Ź6.2 billion) by 2008, with growth emerging particularly from the strong uptake of free-to-air terrestrial services like Freeview. Prior to the launch of successful free-to-air services, the STB market had gone through a period of decline since 2000, as shown.

This recent growth has contributed to the development of new categories of DTV devices, such as DVD and PVR combinations, and sales of integrated digital TV receivers are also finally showing signs of life, according to Strategy Analytics.

The report says that sales of digital satellite TV devices are also increasing this year, but the cable market remains depressed and is unlikely to recover substantially until 2005 and beyond.

Sixteen European countries were surveyed in the report. The UK is the largest market, accounting for 42% of revenues this year, followed by Germany (20%), France (9%) and Italy (5%).

In terms of unit sales, the group forecasts sales of 9.1 million digital TV devices this year, rising to 46.3 million in 2008.

“Device manufacturers have had a difficult time in recent years. Recovery is now in sight, but the structure of demand in the next growth phase will be very different from before. Manufacturers must carefully examine the new market drivers in order to develop products that will support growth and profitability objectives,” said the report’s author, Peter King.