Middle East and Africa digital TV growing fast


Digital TV penetration will reach 81% in the Middle East and Africa region by 2016, according to new research.

However, the forecasts, from Digital TV Research, suggests that only a small proportion of the digital TV homes will be taking a pay TV service. Pay TV revenues will, however, grow by over US$1 billion (€700 million) between now and 2016. Cumulative regional pay TV revenues will be US$4.7 billion at end-2011. This will rise to US$5.9 billion by end-2016.
By 2016, eight countries in the region will be all-digital with Israel the first to achieve 100% digital penetration, this year.


Report author Simon Murray said: “Only 15% of TV households (analogue and digital combined) are actually paying for legitimate TV signals. This proportion will climb only gradually to 22% by 2016. Even so, the number of pay TV homes will nearly double between 2010 and 2016 to 21.2 million, due partly to the boom in TV households.”