Global digital TV homes to “double in five years”

The number of digital TV homes around the world will double between now and 2017, according to the latest report from Digital TV Research.

The forecasts, which cover 80 territories, say that the 2017 total will rise to 1.3 billion and that, at that point, global digital penetration will have reached 86.7%.

Of the 648 million digital TV homes to be added between 2011 and 2017, 259 million will come from digital cable. Homes taking DTT but not subscribing to cable, DTH or IPTV will bring in a further 174 million, with pay DTT adding five million, according to the report. Pay IPTV will increase by 114 million, with pay DTH up 66 million and free-to-air DTH 31 million.

Pay TV penetration (analogue and digital combined) reached half of the world’s TV households by end-2010, and will rise to 63% by end-2017, according to the report. Pay TV penetration at end-2017 will range from 87% in North America to 22% in the Middle East and Africa. Pay TV penetration will remain highest in the Netherlands, at 99.5% by end-2017. However, China will have the most pay TV subs, at 315 million by end-2017, followed by India with 145 million, according to the report.

Simon Murray, report author, said: “There were still 714 million analogue TV households by end-2011. However, this total will fall to 202 million by end-2017. Analogue penetration will drop from 51.4% at end-2011 to 13.3% by end-2017.”