Digital TV To Hit 40m European Homes

The European Television report says that the main reason for the expected upsurge is that cable and satellite companies have managed to consolidate both resources and debts. Pulling resources in this way has allowed them to update their networks and market their services more effectively.

Another reason contributing to the large forecast is penetration of the rapid digital subscriber line (DSL). This has encouraged some telephone companies, including BT in the UK, to expand in to television.

In addition, digital terrestrial TV is finally taking off. In the UK, cheap boxes have encouraged growth and in Italy the Government offers a subsidy to each home which buys a set-top box. The UK DTV market is expected to rise by 19.8% to 14.7 million households this year.

The report forecasts that DTV will hit 112 million homes by 2010; this represents about 48% of European TV households. In the same period nearly 20 million homes in the UK are expected to have digital TVs according to Informa Media.

Seven countries will record more than 66% digital penetration with a further five at about 50%. There will still be 89 million homes in Europe that receive an analogue signal.

TV subscription revenues are expected to reach $28 billion by 2004 and by 2010 will surge to $47 billion, according to the forecasts. This means that revenues are expected to climb faster than the number of subscriber homes.

Simon Murray, report editor said: “Subscription TV revenues passed the $20 billion mark in 2001. Rapid growth is shown when this is compared against the $7.5 billion recorded in 1995.”