Digital TV homes to double within five years

The number of digital TV homes will double between 2010 and 2016 to 1,189 million, according to a report covering 73 countries published by Digital TV Research. The ‘Digital TV World Household Forecasts’ report estimated that digital penetration will climb from 42.5% at end-2010 to 80.0% by 2016. By 2016, 33 countries will be completely digital compared with only one (Finland) at end-2010.

Report author Simon Murray said: “Of the 613 million digital TV homes to be added between 2010 and 2016, 256 million will come from digital cable. Primary FTA DTT [homes taking DTT but not subscribing to cable, DTH or IPTV] will bring in a further 154 million, with pay DTT adding 5 million. Pay IPTV will increase by 121 million, with pay DTH up 56 million and FTA DTH 22 million.”

Murray added: “There were still 780 million analog TV households (both terrestrial and cable, with a few analog DTH ones) by end-2010. However, this total will fall to 297 million by end-2016. Analog penetration will drop from 57.5% at end-2010 to 20.0% by end-2016.”

Source: Digital TV Research Ltd

Split by platform, there will be 220 million analog terrestrial homes and 77 million analog cable ones at end-2016. However, digital cable subscribers will reach 458 million homes, followed by 195 million pay digital DTH and 119 million free-to-air digital DTH. Pay IPTV will contribute another 155 million households, up from only 35 million at end-2010. Meanwhile, FTA (free-to-air) DTT homes will reach 248 million, with pay DTT generating a further 13 million.

Digital cable will be the most popular platform by end-2016, accounting for 30.8% of the world’s TV households, with analog cable still serving 5.2% of TV households. Pay digital DTH penetration will be 13.1%, with FTA digital DTH accounting for 8.0%. Pay IPTV penetration will climb to 10.5%, up from only 2.6% at end-2010. About 16.7% of homes will be primary FTA DTT at end-2016, with 0.9% pay DTT. Analog terrestrial TV will be taken by nearly 15% of the world’s TV households, down from 36% at end-2010.

Source: Digital TV Research Ltd

Of the 613 million digital TV households to be added between 2010 and 2016, 388 million will be in the Asia Pacific region, bringing its total to 607 million. China became the largest digital TV household nation in 2010, and will boast 352 million digital homes by end-2016.

Source: Digital TV Research Ltd