Global Broadcast To Grow To US$326.2bn By 2010
The global broadcast market is expected to experience significant revenue growth, from US$284.1 billion in 2007 to US$326.2 billion by 2010, according to Datamonitor.
Consumers are faced with an unprecedented number of methods to watch and obtain video content. “From personal media players (PMPs), to TV sets, to mobile phones, people will access media content on a variety of different devices over a multitude of communications networks,” says Chris Khouri media and broadcasting analyst at Datamonitor and author of the report. “As such, broadcasters are faced with strong pressure to adapt to multi-platform entertainment provision.”
Datamonitor says there were around 149.5 million households subscribing to a digital television service in Western Europe and the US in 2007. Of the total digital TV households, digital cable services accounted for a 32% share, satellite 43%, digital terrestrial television (DTT) 22%, and IPTV at around 3%.
By 2010, Datamonitor estimates 193.5 million households in the US and Western Europe to be connected to a digital television service. In terms of absolute growth, the two largest gainers will be DTT and digital cable growing by an estimated 13.3 million and 14.5 million households, respectively.
In terms of market share, Datamonitor expects IPTV and DTT to show the strongest percentage growth with a 2.7% and a 3.7% increase, respectively. Considering this, digital TV players will face a challenging year as they look to attract new customers and reduce churn.
Solutions Research Group (SRG) recently reported that nearly 80 million Americans (43% of the online population) have watched one of their favourite TV shows on the internet, up from 25% 12 months ago.
A full 20% of the American online population said that they watch TV on the web on a weekly basis, ahead of the 14% who say that they use cable video-on-demand (VoD) offerings (see 20% Of Americans Watch TV Online On Weekly Basis).
Recently a forecast from Attentional suggested that a number of factors will combine to offer a brighter than anticipated future for UK television over the next five years.
Attentional said that one factor behind this trend is the rapid conversion of older viewers to digital platforms, where the availability of extra channels means they tend to watch more television.
The digital conversion of younger viewers who have so far resisted taking up multichannel technologies is also playing a significant role (see Bright Future For UK TV).
Meanwhile, Tiscali’s TV Trends Report 2008 revealed that more than a third of British consumers (37%) are now regularly watching on demand content, twice as many as last year (17%).
The report shows that 86% of those watching on-demand TV are watching at least as much, if not more TV than a year ago. In addition, almost two thirds of British consumers (64%) said that traditional TV schedules restrict their viewing too much.
Tiscali found that the main barrier to widespread adoption of on-demand TV is a perception that it is too expensive (57%), while 31% just didn’t know they could do it (see More Than A third Of British Consumers Watch On-Demand Content).