DTV households to reach 1 billion

Digital TV households will exceed 1 billion globally by the end of 2014, up 32.5% from 2012, according to Strategy Analytics stats. 

The research firm’s Global Digital Television Forecast said that the expected rise marks a “significant increase” from the end of 2012, when digital cable, satellite, IPTV and terrestrial (DTT) households totalled 755 million.

It added that projected increases in the overall DTV market amount to a six-year compound annual growth rate of 10.7%.

Digital cable is tipped to remain the dominant DTV platform, with these subscriber figures due to grow as digital switchover continues around the world. Free and paid- digital satellite household numbers are expected to grow 64% from 2012 to 2018.

“Even though many countries have completed their digital transitions, there is still a lot of room for growth in digital television globally. Perhaps surprisingly, one of the biggest growth rates over the next few years will be in digital terrestrial.  Most countries will complete the digital transition by 2018 and pay digital terrestrial as well as free-to-air terrestrial services will benefit from these transitions,” said Strategy Analytics’ director of service provider strategies, Jason Blackwell.

Strategy Analytics analyst Eric Smith added: “Digital subscribers typically represent a higher value to the operator, with a higher base subscription fee as well as higher video on demand sales. As a result, we expect to see Digital Pay TV revenues grow by 45% between 2012 and 2018.”