Meko Reports Cable Dominates European TV Format Through 2011

Company’s Europe DisplayCast Digital TV Report to be launched at DisplayForum 2008

AUSTIN, TEXAS — At next week’s DisplayForum 2008, Meko, the leading specialist for European electronic display market research and consultancy, will reveal the findings of its DisplayCast Digital TV Report, indicating that in 2011, the most popular way of watching TV on a household’s main set will still be via existing cable providers. In addition, those receiving digital terrestrial broadcasts will increase from 12% in 2008 to 20% in 2011. Meko’s DisplayCast service also forecasts that, while it will grow strongly in some markets, IPTV will still represent just 5% of the market.

“The European TV market is very complex and, to complete our analysis, we had to undertake country-by-country research of broadcasting activity and developments in the TV set market,” said Bob Raikes, managing director of Meko Ltd. He added, “By the end of the forecast period, nearly all new TV sets sold for main room TVs will have tuners that can receive digital broadcasts, but the majority of these will not be used most of the time. Most consumers will still continue to use set-top boxes for access to cable, satellite and IPTV programming.”

Table 1: Means of TV Watching in European Households

          2008   2011
          ----   ----
DTT        12%    20%
DTH        25%    28%
Cable      30%    30%
IPTV        3%    5%
Analogue   30%    17%

The launch of the DisplayCast Digital TV Report at DisplayForum 2008 will be one of seven presentations on the first day of the conference discussing the issues and challenges that face the manufacturers of TVs in Europe.

The complexity of the TV market in Europe has increased significantly with the development of digital TV, as each country is adopting different combinations of broadcasting systems, compression and interactive techniques. To understand the European market as a whole, manufacturers of the TVs and their components and the associated supply chains need to look individually at each nation. The launch of the DisplayCast Digital TV Report from Meko will provide this crucial information for planning strategies and determining the addressable market for each country. The report combines country-by-country trend analysis with Meko’s TV forecasts for TV set sales to provide a unique overview of the state of the industry. The report will allow the difficult decisions about timing, cost and technical features to be made more efficiently and from a position of knowledge.

The report is the first of its kind to look at the potential markets within Europe from the set makers’ point of view, defining them by country with a detailed level of information.

DisplayForum 2008 will be held on November 4-5 at the Radisson SAS Hotel in Düsseldorf, Germany, providing valuable insight into the European markets for TVs, IT displays, green IT and digital signage. Meko co-hosts DisplayForum 2008 with DisplaySearch.