Digital Lifescapes

Based on forecasts for 138 countries, the number of digital TV homes will increase by more than 1 billion between 2010 and 2020 to 1.68 billion -- that's up by 185 percent, according to the latest market study by Digital TV Research . The Digital TV World Household Forecasts report estimates that the digital TV total will climb by 131 million in 2014 alone. Global digital TV penetration will reach 97.9% of television households by end-2020, that's up from 40.5 percent at end-2010 and 67.7 percent at end-2014. By 2020, 94 countries will be completely digital compared with only 12 at end-2013. About 124 countries will have more than 90 percent digital penetration by 2020. Of the 762 million digital TV homes to be added between 2013 and 2020, 258 million will come from digital cable. Primary FTA DTT -- homes taking DTT but not subscribing to cable, DTH or IPTV -- will acquire an additional 292 million. Pay IPTV will more than double to 191 million, with pay DTH up by 79 mi...

The apparent saturation of pay-TV subscribers in North American and Western European markets has troubled set-top box vendors for some time. They have had to look elsewhere for new upside opportunities. As an example, while the number of U.S. households that subscribe to  pay-TV service has remained flat during the last two years, those subscribers who are struggling with economic pressures are more likely to switch providers or totally cancel service, according to a recent report from Leichtman Research Group. As a result, emerging markets have become the new high-growth potential opportunity. However, the emerging market environment is very different from the traditional pay-TV arena. It has economic demands that many mainstream device manufacturers simply can't meet. A jump in cable and satellite set-top box shipments in Asia-Pacific markets is being driven by cable digitization in India and China -- as well as China's roll-out of digital satellite boxes to its ...

According to the latest market study by DisplaySearch , television set shipments fell almost 8 percent worldwide year-on-year in the first quarter of 2012 -- that's the steepest rate of decline since the second quarter of 2009. Total TV shipments for the quarter were 51 million units. The biggest contributor to the decline was a slowdown in shipments of LCD TVs, which fell year-on-year for the first time in the history of the category -- declining just over 3 percent, to 43 million units. "Soft demand and cautious expectations about the upcoming year in many parts of the TV supply chain have led to a slowdown in shipments," noted Paul Gagnon, NPD DisplaySearch Director of North America TV Research. LCD TV shipment share fell slightly from Q4’11, but is up four percentage points from a year ago, to 84.2 percent. LCD TV is capturing market share at 40” and larger screen sizes because of a sharp decline in plasma TV demand. The average LCD TV screen size increased 5 ...

Without a doubt, 2010 was a challenging year for the worldwide digital set-top box (STB) market, as total unit shipments decreased by 7 percent. It is likely that 2011 will also be a disappointing year, but there may be better news on the horizon. Fueled primarily by the analog-to-digital transition as well as upgrades of older devices to newer HDTV versions, HD and PVR versions, and Hybrid STBs with PVR capability and a broadband connection -- digital terrestrial STB unit shipments will approach 45 million units by 2015, according to the latest market study by In-Stat . "Digital set-top boxes continue to be key pieces of equipment for pay-TV service providers. For many service providers, the digital STB functions as their gateway into the home," says Mike Paxton, Research Director at In-Stat. In addition to their important position in the digital TV or pay-TV ecosystem, digital set-top boxes continue to offer an attractive market opportunity for STB manufacturers and s...

The first wireless applications likely to adopt Wi-Fi Direct (peer-to-peer connectivity) include mobile PCs, digital televisions (DTVs), and mobile phones. These devices have something in common: they're the respective centers of the PC,consumer electronics (CE), mobile device clusters, and they ship in the hundreds of millions of devices annually. Wireless display of images and video is a major aim of Wi-Fi Direct, so the main display in most homes will be a key target. According to the latest market study by In-Stat , in 2015 nearly 80 million DTVs will be Wi-Fi Direct-enabled. "One significant question surrounding to Wi-Fi Direct is will it ultimately help to increase the penetration of Wi-Fi? The answer is, marginally if at all," says Brian O'Rourke, Research Director at In-Stat. Wi-Fi already has increasing penetration rates throughout PCs, PC peripherals, CE devices, and mobile phones. Moreover, the upside for new applications within smartphones and mult...

Support for DLNA in Windows 7 will spark significant growth in Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) and Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) technology, which is used to make in-home media sharing easier, according to the latest market study by In-Stat . Shipments of DLNA-enabled devices will surpass a billion units by 2014, up from several hundred million in 2009. Attached rates for UPnP are also growing and will slightly exceed those of DLNA. UPnP enables devices from multiple vendors to communicate with one another. DLNA builds upon UPnP to provide interoperability of media across devices. "While UPnP and DLNA are seeing increased adoption and unit shipments, it may take several years before large numbers of consumers use the technology" says Norm Bogen, In-Stat analyst. "The number of consumers who realize they have this functionality and understand its implications continues to be very low." Apparently, yet another example of how an effective market develo...

According to the latest market study by Strategy Analytics , global Digital Television (DTV) subscriptions will grow from 484 million in 2010 to 887 million by 2014, with a five-year Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 16.34 percent. On a regional basis, Asia-Pacific, Central and Latin America and Central/Eastern Europe are expected to grow the fastest during the next five years. Cable TV continues to be the dominant television viewing platform, however over two-thirds of subscriptions worldwide still use analog services. This is expected to change rapidly, with digital cable households outnumbering analog starting in 2012. As countries roll out their respective Digital Switchover (DSO) programs, the relative importance of Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) as a primary viewing platform will increase. Although there has been much optimism about the future of Telco IPTV, Strategy Analytics believes that the technology may have encountered some setbacks. As such, they have sc...

The latest global market study by MRG demonstrates how Over-the-Top (OTT) video services may offer new opportunities for Pay-TV providers to expand their reach through TV-centric "open" Internet services. Is this the beginning of the end for walled-garden (closed) Pay-TV services? Well, that depends on your point of view, and perhaps if and when the CE manufacturers can bring new and improved Internet Video-Ready television sets to market. Revenues in 2012 should exceed $11 billion, with Internet Set-top Box (ISTB) penetration (including game consoles) exceeding 57 million. Besides cost containment practices, MRG identified what kinds of OTT video content consumers want (and will pay for), based on a global consumer survey. "The real question isn't whether Pay-TV Service Providers (SPs) should implement OTT, as most analysts already agree (they should)," says MRG Analyst Mike Galli. "The real question is how and with what results, which is why we did a ROI ...

Shipments of set-top boxes (STBs) are expected to peak this year, at least in mature markets, and then commence a gradual decline. However, the analog TV shut-offs in countries around the world, combined with the strong uptake of high-definition (HD) TV sets, mean that HD STBs will form a growing part of the total market. HD STBs are expected to account for about 30 percent of all STB shipments as soon as 2010. This is accompanied by a progressive movement from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 for content delivery. According to ABI Research industry analyst Michael Inouye, "Closely related to MPEG-4 is a growing affinity for HD boxes over SD. As more HDTVs find their way into homes, the demand for HD content grows in kind. Anticipating this demand some countries and operators have elected to support the more efficient standard up front or to begin deployments of upgraded CPE." The price points of boxes are converging; MPEG-4 and in some cases HD are getting sufficiently inexpensive that some...

Demand for PC-TV tuners has fallen off from the 2008 levels due to the worldwide economic recession, according to the latest study by In-Stat. Perhaps broadcast signal reception quality is also still an issue -- that was my prior personal experience with analog tuners. The market also faces fundamental challenges, including slow consumer demand, increased competition from online television and other programming sources, and lower prices due to a shift from hybrid analog/digital tuners to digital-only tuners. One hopeful development is that Microsoft's Windows 7 and the new version of Media Center will apparently include better connectivity solutions for PC-TV Tuners. "Opportunities for growth will be for hybrid analog/digital tuner manufacturers to increase share by lowering prices, or for new entrants to leapfrog the analog and hybrid segments by aggressively targeting the emerging digital-only segments, albeit with lower margins," says Gerry Kaufhold, In-Stat analyst. I...

New research from Informa Telecoms & Media shows that digital TV will make significant growth progress in Latin America over the next five years. Digital TV households will more than treble in that time -- from 12.2 million at present to 37.1 million by 2014. Informa discovered that while Brazil and Mexico now combine to account for half of the region's digital subscribers, this will drop to 45 percent in 2014 -- as other countries see their services start to take off. Adam Thomas at Informa said "While the global economic situation is bound to have some impact, Latin America's economies now appear more robust than they were in the 1990s. We therefore see a positive outlook for the region's TV sector." Major players such as Telmex and Telefonica continue to invest, which contributes to the upbeat sentiment. The Informa research found that deregulation in the telecoms sector has encouraged cable TV operators to invest in network improvements, or face the risk o...

The global financial crisis could endanger many large Digital Terrestrial TV (DTT) deployment projects, which require large amounts of financed capital, according to the latest market study by In-Stat. This setback could cause major delays in DTT conversion programs worldwide, with consumers purchasing fewer Set Top Boxes (STB) as a result. "Another scenario, however, is more upbeat for the STB market," says Gerry Kaufhold, In-Stat analyst. The economic slowdown could spur governments to fund the DTT transition at an accelerated rate to stimulate the economy. By auctioning off the analog spectrum, governments would receive income. Hopefully, converting analog spectrum for other uses, such a license-free metro area wireless broadband, will also spur new innovation and opportunity. In-Stat's market study found the following: - Total DTT STB unit shipments will peak at 44 million in 2009. - Standard Definition (SD) DTT set top box unit shipments will peak in 2011. - The ...

Wi-Fi's existing large installed base in mobile PCs and home networks means that it is likely to be a primary connectivity solution for new consumer electronics (CE) devices, according to the latest market study by In-Stat. Attach rates for Wi-Fi among game consoles are already approaching 80 percent. In-Stat expects DTV to be another high volume driver, reaching nearly 21 million units shipped with Wi-Fi by 2012. While growth rates and penetration of Wi-Fi in the living room is growing, Wi-Fi is still dominated by the huge volume of mobile Wi-Fi devices. Beyond the already established notebook PC segment, Portable Media Players shipped with Wi-Fi will grow to well over 100 million units in 2011 and cellular/Wi-Fi handsets will pass 300 million units by 2012. "Finalization of IEEE 802.11n will remedy some of the technical issues that constrained Wi-Fi adoption in video-centric CE devices," says Victoria Fodale, In-Stat analyst. "We expect the adoption of Wi-Fi in the...

The upcoming switchover to all-digital television broadcasting in the U.S. and other major countries will create an unprecedented opportunity for mobile TV services, according to a new market study by ABI Research. While mobile broadcast TV was pioneered in Japan and South Korea, following the switchover traditional and mobile TV broadcasters and cellular operators in many regions will launch mobile TV services that are forecast to attract over 500 million viewers by 2013. There's an important distinction to draw between content streamed to mobile handsets over cellular networks, and free-to-air broadcasting to mobile devices equipped with mobile TV tuners. "Mobile TV users have yet to value the medium properly because it has not been validated as an independent product and service," says senior analyst Jeff Orr. "It has been primarily offered at the end of a long list of more preferred cellular services. However, Mobile TV will soon be positioned in a more proper ro...

The switchover to digital television (DTV) broadcast transmissions will reduce coverage, and therefore viewers, within many markets of the United States. People are unaware of the consequences of this transition -- including most TV advertisers. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released two reports that show changes in the coverage of the nation's full-power television stations as they prepare to transition from analog to digital broadcasting on February 17, 2009. The FCC initiated this side-by-side comparison to proactively identify the changes associated with the switch to digital broadcasting by TV stations and share the information with consumer viewers throughout the country. "It is critical that broadcasters use the information in these reports to inform their viewers about how changes in their coverage may affect them," stated FCC Chairman Kevin Martin. "We expect broadcasters to make this information readily available and include it in all of thei...

Informitv reports that Sony is the latest in a line of consumer electronics companies that are attempting to connect the television screen to the internet, and in the process they are upsetting the status quo of the current broadcast network television business model. Sony has introduced a new device that attaches to the back of its new television sets, providing access to streaming video delivered over a broadband connection. Known as over-the-top video services, because they bypass a broadband provider's pay-TV distribution services and go directly to the consumer. Sony Electronics president and chief operating officer Stan Glasgow unveiled the 'Sony Video Link' internet video system at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. "The Internet is reshaping the entertainment and technology landscape," he said "and it can’t come as any surprise that Sony is committed to creating an environment of convergence where products and content work together seamlessly...