TV holds its own as global digital markets see continued growth

The global TV services market grew by 4.1% last year, according to France-based research group IDATE’s Digiworld Yearbook, published this week.

The TV service market totaled €329 billion in 2012 and outperformed the consumer electronics market, which fell 7.1% year-on-year to €260 billion.

The top 10 media companies in 2012 were all US-based, led by Comcast – now including NBC Universal – followed by DirecTV, Time Warner, Walt Disney, News Corp, Time Warner Cable, Cox Enterprises, Dish Network, Viacom and CBS.

Of the market segments measured by IDATE, only growth in telecom equipment sales outperformed TV services, growing by 7.1% to €330 billion. Telecom services remains much larger by volume however, growing by 2.7% to €1,115 billion.

Software and computer services grew by 3.7% to €775 billion, while computer hardware sales grew by 4% to €360 billion.

Europe’s digital markets together grew by only 0.1% to €869 billion, according to IDATE, and Europe was outperformed by all other global regions. Africa saw the highest growth, up 8.2% to €176 billion, followed by Latin America, up 5.2% to €272 billion, Asia Pacific, up 3.9% to €913 billion, and North America – which remained the largest single market overall – up 2.5% to €939 billion.

IDATE said that it expects the global internet services market to double in size between now and 2016, growing 110% from €158 billion to €332 billion. Overall, IDATE expects core digital markets globally to grow by 16% from €3,169 billion to €3,663 billion.

Within internet services, IDATE expects OTT video record the highest growth between now and 2016, followed by paid mobile applications and social networks. The biggest sectors by volume however will be cloud services, search and e-commerce.