DTT leads in west Europe but cable is global driver

摘要

Digital-terrestrial television will be the leading form of television distribution in western Europe by 2012, but will lag behind digital cable and satellite in every other region of the world apart from the Middle East. While overall digital-television penetration will reach almost 100 per cent in North America and will top 85 per cent in western Europe, it will remain well below one third in the rest of the world. These are among the forecasts presented in a report on the global digital-television market, published by Informa Telecoms & Media, which suggests that the total penetration of digital television across the world will rise from 17 per cent at the end of this year to 43 per cent at the end of 2012. That amounts to 504 million homes out of nearly 1.2 billion television homes, compared with 185 million at the end of 2006 - an increase, over six years, of 272 per cent. Throughout this period, numbers in western Europe and North America are close to level pegging. In the former, digital homes are forecast to rise from 80 million at the end of this year to 93 million in 2008 and 135 million in 2012; in the latter, the equivalent figures are 86 million, 98 million and 130 million. But the strongest growth will be in the Asia-Pacific region: from 54 million homes in 2007 and 75 million in 2008, the regional total will hit 181 million in 2012, says the report from Informa, publisher of New Media Markets.