Global Digital TV Conversion to Be Nearly Complete by 2020

LONDON: The number of digital TV homes is forecast to increase by more than 1 billion between 2010 and 2020, with penetration to reach 97.9 percent of television households by end-2020, according to a new report from Digital TV Research.

The number of digital TV homes is expected to reach 1.68 billion by 2020, up 185 percent from 2010. The digital TV total is predicted to climb by 131 million in 2014 alone.

Global digital TV penetration was at 40.5 percent at the end of 2010 and is forecast at 67.7 percent at end-2014. By 2020, 94 countries will be completely digital, compared with only 12 at the end of 2013. About 124 countries will have more than 90 percent digital penetration by 2020.

Of the 762 million digital TV homes to be added between 2013 and 2020, around 258 million are expected to come from digital cable. Primary free-to-air DTT will add an additional 292 million. Pay IPTV will more than double to 191 million, with pay DTH up by 79 million.

Digital cable will become the world's most popular TV platform this year, accounting for 33.6 percent of the world's TV households in 2020. Digital cable TV penetration will exceed 50 percent of TV households in nine countries by 2020, led by Belgium at 64.9 percent.

The number of digital TV households in the Asia Pacific will more than double between 2013 and 2020, with 88 million added in 2014 alone. The region will supply 501 million (66 percent) of the 762 million digital TV household additions between 2013 and 2020. Sub-Saharan Africa will more than triple its base over the same period. China became the largest digital TV household nation in 2010, and will boast 460 million digital homes by end-2020 (27 percent of the global total) up by 225 million on 2013. India will add 118 million digital TV homes between 2013 and 2020. India will overtake the US to take second place in 2015. Brazil will take fourth place and Russia fifth by 2020, both of which will more than double their digital TV totals. Indonesia will leap to seventh place by adding 42 million digital TV households.