Global digital TV penetration climbs

Global digital TV penetration climbed from about 19% in 2006 to 42% at the end of last year, according to a report from Digital TV Research.

According to Digital TV Research’s Digital TV World Databook, about 338 million digital homes across 73 countries studied were added between 2006 and 2010. According to report author Simon Murray, the number of analogue TV homes fell from 1.023 billion to 780 million between 2006 and 2010. Analogue terrestrial remained the most popular platform at the end of the period, with 35.9% of TV homes, followed by analogue cable with 21.4% and digital cable with 14.9%. Pay digital DTH accounted for 10.3% of homes. The report found that global pay TV revenues reached US$155 billion (€108 billion) by 2010.

China and the US were the top countries by number of digital households at end-2010, with 109.5 million and 99.8 million respectively, while Finland and Spain topped the digital penetration table, with 100% and 99% respectively. China and the US also topped the pay TV league by number of households, with 194.5 million and 103.1 million.