Almost half of all homes in the US, Canada and Latin America region will have switched to digital television (DTV) by 2007, according to a new forward-looking report from Zenith Optimedia Group.
According to a report by the World Advertising Research Centre (WARC), the
Television In The Americas To 2007 study shows that whilst DTV uptake will be strong, the proportion of homes subscribing to digital terrestrial services will languish around the 4% mark by the same year.
DTV will see strong growth rates in cable and satellite homes, reaching an estimated penetration of 66% of all homes by 2007, say the forecasts. Conversely, digital terrestrial homes are unlikely to exceed 3.8% over the next five years.
Nevertheless, the forecasts are broadly upbeat, suggesting that TV advertising spend in the Americas will grow from $63.2 billion in 2000 (a strong year) to $90.5 billion by 2007 – a 43.5% increase. In 2001, spend dropped by 4.2%; some positive growth is expected for the full year 2002.
The report also shows that pay-TV is to grow rapidly across the region and, whilst subscription revenues are catching up with ad revenues, advertising will continue to be the primary source of income for the industry over the forecast period.
But as the number of subscribers continues to rise, so does average revenue per user (ARPU). These revenues have also proven much less vulnerable to the economic downturn than advertising income, WARC reports. Zenith Optimedia estimates that households in the Americas paid $48.6 billion for pay-TV in 2001, up from $16.9 billion in 1990. By 2007 subscription revenues are predicted to reach $78.8 billion.
