Global Digital Television (DTV) households will continue a growth trend, and exceed 1 billion by the end of 2014. This represents a significant increase from the end of 2012 when digital cable, satellite, IPTV and terrestrial (DTT) households totaled 755 million. The Strategy Analytics Service Provider Strategies (SPS) service report, "Global Digital Television Forecast," shows a six year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.7 percent for the DTV market overall.
Digital cable will remain the dominant platform, as cable operators around the world continue with digital transitions. Even as some cable operators see total subscribers stalling or shrinking, digital cable subscriber counts will continue to increase. Digital satellite households, comprised of pay and free services, will also experience significant growth in several regions as the total number of subscribers increases by 64 percent 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," says Jason Blackwell, Director, Service Provider Strategies (SPS) at Strategy Analytics. "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."
"Digital subscribers typically represent a higher value to the operator, with a higher base subscription fee as well as higher video on demand sales," says Eric Smith, Analyst in the Service Provider Strategies group. "As a result, we expect to see Digital Pay TV revenues grow by 45 percent between 2012 and 2018."
