Europe will overtake Asia-Pac HDTV by 2011, driven by satellite

Europe is expected to surpass the Asia Pacific region to become the second largest HDTV market in the world by the end of 2011, according to IMS Research. The growth will be fuelled by reduced MPEG-4 AVC set-top box costs for both operators and consumers, higher availability of local HD content, more competitive pricing for HD services, the growing popularity of flat-screen TVs, and sports-driven demand for HDTV.
The Americas will remain the largest HD market, the company notes. In the US, cable will dominate HDTV to the end of 2011. IMS Research cites the advancement of digital cable and heavy promotion of triple-play and advanced services as reasons for the cable success. The US is forecast to drive the majority of worldwide cable HDTV growth over the period.
“Satellite is still expected to make substantial gains in the US, thanks to focused marketing efforts by US satellite operators to push HDTV as a competitive differentiator,” IMS adds.
The UK headquartered research and consultancy firm predicts satellite will be stronger in Europe. There “the slow advancement of digital cable in recent years has helped position satellite as the most common method of receiving pay-HDTV,” the company says. “Recent consolidation of the cable TV markets in several countries is expected to aid European cable HDTV growth over the long-term.”
Overall, the conclusion is that the HDTV market will grow to nearly 148 million households by 2011, with nearly 41 per cent of them receiving HDTV programming via satellite. The growth in satellite HDTV will be driven mainly by the US and Western Europe.
The findings are based on IMS Research for a new report called ‘The Future of High-Definition TV – 2007 Edition’.