Report: Digital TV to Reach 517 Million Households By Year’s End

LONDON: Some 85 million digital TV households are expected to be added in 2010, according to a new report, with the global total to reach 517 million and digital penetration to hit 40 percent.

Informa Telecoms & Media’s new Global Digital TV report expects more than 401 million digital homes to be added be the end of 2015. For 2010, penetration in North America will be 86 percent, with Western Europe at 78 percent. An additional 89 million digital homes are expected to be added to the global total in 2011, bringing penetration to 46 percent of TV households. By the end of 2015, there will be nearly 1 billion digital households. Penetration is expected to hit 100 in North American by 2014.

By 2015, Asia Pacific will account for 46 percent of the world’s digital homes, with North America taking 15 percent and Western Europe at 19 percent. More than 401 million digital homes will be added between the end of 2010 and the end of 2015. China leads the way, with 136 million of these additions, followed by India (+47 million), Russia (+31 million) and the U.S. (+21 million). The U.S. is forecast to have 102 million digital households, 20 percent of the world’s total, by the end of this year. For 2015, the U.S. will take 13 percent of the global total. China will reach 233 million digital households by for 2015, with digital penetration at 54 percent. Third-placed India will have 85 million digital homes, with 52-penetration, by the end of 2015.

By 2015, 35 percent of the world’s TV households will still receive analog signals, revealing plenty of scope for further digital growth. A further 28 percent of homes will take digital cable, with pay DTH at 14 percent and pay IPTV at 5 percent.

Cable will be the main platform for TV households, with a 37-percent share of TV homes over the forecast period. The total number of cable TV homes will increase by 7 percent from 489 million at the end of this year to 524 million in 2015. Digital cable is expected to increas from 15-percent penetration in 2010 to 28 percent by 2015 (see fig. 6). Analogue cable will drop from 22 percent in 2010 to 9 percent in 2015. By 2015, India will still have 46 million analogue cable homes, with China contributing a further 22 million.