Report: Digital TV Households Pass 1 Billion Mark

LONDON: Some 455 million digital TV homes were added around the world between end-2010 and end-2014, taking the total to 1.05 billion, according to a new report from Digital TV Research.

Digital TV penetration climbed from 40.5 percent at end-2010 to 67.2 percent by end-2014. From the 455 million digital homes added between 2010 and 2014, 111 million came from primary DTT—homes taking DTT but not subscribing to cable, satellite TV or IPTV. Digital cable contributed a further 182 million. There were more pay IPTV additions (66 million) than pay satellite TV ones (60 million).

Of the digital TV household additions between 2010 and 2014, 287 million were in the Asia-Pacific region—more than doubling its total to 513 million. China became the largest digital TV household nation in 2010, rising to 285 million digital TV homes by end-2014, accounting for 27 percent of the world’s total.

The number of pay-TV subscribers reached 878 million by 2014, up from 718 million in 2010. Asia Pacific increased by 106 million, or two-thirds of the global additions, during this period to bring its total to half a billion. North America was the second largest region, with 111 million, although its 2014 figure was lower than in 2010. China had the most pay-TV subs by end-2014—254 million, up by 59 million on 2010. India added 28 million pay-TV subs, with Brazil adding 10 million more, Mexico 6 million and Indonesia 4 million. However, pay-TV subscriber numbers fell in Italy, the U.S. and France.

Pay-TV revenues crossed $200 billion in 2014, up by 14.5 percent from $176 billion in 2010. Cable generated the highest revenues by platform, with $92 billion in 2014. However, cable TV revenues are falling, warns Digital TV Research. IPTV revenues reached $19.8 billion in 2014, up by $10 billion on 2010. North America generates about half the world’s total pay-TV revenues. The U.S. recorded revenues in 2014 nearly ten times as high as second-placed China. The U.S. added $6.1 billion in revenues between 2010 and 2014, followed by Brazil with $3 billion more and China $2.5 billion extra.