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Tag: Simon Murray

  • Digital TV homes to double in Eastern Europe

    Digital TV homes to double in Eastern Europe

    MUMBAI: Rapid conversion means that the number of digital homes in Eastern Europe will nearly double between 2012 and 2018, bringing the total to 121 million, according to a new report from Digital TV Research. In fact, the Digital TV Eastern Europe report estimates that 13 million digital TV homes will be added in 2013 alone.

    Digital TV penetration crossed the halfway mark of TV households in 2012, up from only 20 per cent at end of 2008. Fast take-up (and analog terrestrial switch-off) will push digital TV penetration to 61.4 per cent by end of 2013 and onto 97.3 per cent by 2018. Ten of the 21 countries covered in this report will be completely digitised by 2018, with Estonia the first to full conversion – in 2012.

    The number of analogue terrestrial TV households fell by 30 million between 2008 and 2012, leaving 37.2 million. However, only 13 million DTT homes were added, therefore the digital pay TV platforms benefitted from the analogue terrestrial homes converting to digital. With nearly all of the analogue terrestrial TV homes disappearing, there will be 43.3 million DTT homes (or about a third of the TV households) by 2018.

    Digital TV Research principal analyst Simon Murray said, “Much of the emphasis has fallen on the remaining 21.7 million analogue cable subscribers. Many of these homes will upgrade to digital cable, but some will shift to IPTV and DTH. However, many of the remaining analogue cable subscribers are refuseniks, who don‘t want to pay more for TV services. Free-to-air DTT (or even pay DTT) is an attractive option for these homes.”

    “Slow implementation of analogue terrestrial switchover favored the pay TV operators as it gave them more time to convert homes to their packages before FTA DTT became established. Poland and Romania are prime examples of this. However, we expect the impact of DTT in these two countries to result in (small) declines in their pay TV subscriber counts,” he added.

  • Digitisation to propel pay TV revenue growth in Asia Pacific: Study

    Digitisation to propel pay TV revenue growth in Asia Pacific: Study

    MUMBAI: The cable TV digitisation in India and other Asian countries will drive pay TV revenues in Asia Pacific which are expected to reach $43.9 billion in 2018 from $33.86 billion in 2013, according to Digital TV Asia Pacific report.

    Digital cable television will comprise the largest chunk of the overall pay TV revenue pie. It is expected to grow from $12.42 billion in 2013 to $23.16 billion. Direct-to-Home (DTH) will be the second pay TV revenue contributor by 2018 with an estimated $11.6 billion in revenues, up from $8.5 billion in 2013.

    Both digital cable TV and DTH will grow even as analogue cable TV revenue will shrink from $8.9 billion currently to to $1.83 billion as cable TV digitisation gains momentum. IPTV revenues during the same period are expected to reach $7.17 billion in 2018 from $4.01 billion.

    The report also said that pay TV penetration will rise from 56 per cent in 2012 to 67 per cent in 2018, adding 154 million subscribers to take the total to 587 million.

    China will provide 313 million pay TV households by 2018, with India supplying a further 158 million. However, pay TV penetration will be higher in South Korea (95 per cent) and Hong Kong (96 per cent).

    Digital TV research‘s Simon Murray said, “Pay TV revenues will more than double in five countries Indonesia (tripling), Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam] between 2012 and 2018, but will fall in Hong Kong and South Korea.”

    The Asia Pacific region is undergoing a rapid digital TV conversion that will see penetration increase from 16 per cent in 2008 to 44 per cent in 2012 and on to 90 per cent in 2018 – or up by 440 million homes between 2012 and 2018. By end-2013, digital penetration will reach 53 per cent, or 420 million homes (up by 78 million on the end-2012 figure), says the report.

    Murray continued: “Despite the rapid conversion, digital TV will still have plenty of room for growth for some time to come. Only six of the 15 countries forecast in this report will have fully converted to digital by 2018. By then, Indonesia and the Philippines will have digital penetration of only 42 per cent and 34 per cent respectively. Indonesia will still have 29 million analog homes and India will have 31 million analog homes.”

    Of the 440 million digital homes to be added between 2012 and 2018, 128 million will come from DTT. However, the number of analog terrestrial homes will fall by 204 million. Digital cable will contribute a further 187 million additional homes, with analog cable losing 141 million. Pay DTH will supply an extra 35 million and pay IPTV 71 million more.

    The report also forecasted that pay IPTV subscribers will overtake that of pay DTH in 2016.

  • Global fixed broadband penetration to reach 49% by 2017

    Global fixed broadband penetration to reach 49% by 2017

    MUMBAI: A survey by Digital TV Research has revealed that the need for speed as people make increased use of over-the-top (OTT) and managed IPTV services will drive the fixed broadband market to reach 745 million homes by 2017.

    The survey called Fixed Broadband Household Forecasts says this will be a significant rise from the 473 million homes in 2010 and the 578 million expected by the end of 2012. In other words, global fixed broadband household penetration will be 49.2 per cent by 2017. It was 33.5 per cent in 2010 and 40.3 per cent by the end of this year.

    According to the study, China will continue to be the top nation by fixed broadband households in 2017, with 251 million homes, while the US is likely to retain second place with 101 million homes.

    Another revelation of the survey was that three-quarters of fixed broadband households received download speeds of less than 10Mbps in 2010, with only 2.3 per cent above 30Mbps. It is expected that the under 10Mbps proportion will have fallen to 58 per cent by the end of 2012, and to drop to 31 per cent by 2017. The percentage of homes getting faster than 30Mbps speed is projected reach 7.2 per cent by end-2012, rapidly advancing to more than a quarter of the total by 2017.

    The author of the reported Simon Murray has been quoted as saying, "Perhaps just as interesting as the overall increase in fixed broadband household numbers is the shift of homes subscribing to faster download speeds. Many governments have initiated national broadband network projects, which involve extensive capital expenditure to build out modern (usually fibre) networks. In other countries, greater competition has encouraged operators to construct fibre networks from their own initiatives."