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Television now 55% digital as analogue broadcasting
switch-off advances worldwide
TV market diversifies, competition intensifies, with IPTV, digital
terrestrial, cable and DTH satellite all vying for viewer share
Geneva, 21 November 2013 – On the occasion of
UN World Television Day,
ITU research shows that the world has witnessed a massive shift from analogue to
digital television, with over 55 per cent of households with a TV now receiving
a digital signal compared with just 30 per cent in 2008, according to new data
from our flagship annual report
Measuring the Information Society 2013.
ITU figures show that, globally, the halfway mark for digital penetration was
passed in 2012. In the developed world, an estimated 81 per cent of total
households with a TV now receive a digital signal. But the digital switchover is
also moving forward apace in the developing world, where the number of
households receiving digital TV almost tripled in the four-year period from 2008
to end 2012, reaching 42 per cent.
The number of pay-TV subscriptions worldwide increased by 32 per cent between
2008 and 2012, overtaking free-to-air TV in 2011. There were a total of 728
million pay-TV subscriptions by end 2012, meaning that 53 per cent of all
households with a television had a pay-TV subscription.
The new report notes that traditional multichannel TV platforms, such as
cable and direct-to-home (DTH) satellite, are facing increasing competition from
IPTV service providers and even digital terrestrial TV (DTT) channels.
At the same time, TV delivery over the Internet is becoming increasingly
popular, particularly through over-the-top (OTT) audio-visual content providers
such as YouTube, Netflix and China’s PPLive service, as well as the many
traditional broadcasting stations that now offer online streaming or downloading
of TV and video content.
The steady decline in analogue TV technologies is being counterbalanced by
strong growth of digital technologies. Digital cable subscriptions more than
doubled between 2008 and 2012, as did the number of households receiving DTT.
The technology with the highest relative growth was IPTV, with total
subscriptions increasing more than fourfold over the four-year period. In
absolute terms, however, IPTV still represents a marginal share of total
households with a TV, accounting for just 5 per cent in 2012.
“New technologies are creating a plethora of new platforms for content
sharing, which in turn is making television much more accessible over a wide
range of devices,” said Dr Hamadoun I. Touré, Secretary-General, ITU. “This is
very important in the developing world, where TV continues to play an important
role in education and knowledge sharing.”
Globally, ITU figures show that there were an estimated 1.4 billion
households with at least one TV set by end 2012. In the developing world as a
whole, 72 per cent of households had a TV, compared with 98 per cent household
penetration in developed countries. In Africa, fewer than one third of
households had a TV at end 2012.
“Digital TV continues to evolve into a highly valuable platform for the
delivery of all kinds of services, like educational programming for distance
learning,” said Brahima Sanou, Director of the ITU’s Telecommunication
Development Bureau. “With television now accessible over an ever-wider
range of digital devices, it constitutes an important element of our new Smart
Sustainable Development initiative, as well as our M-powering Development
partnership programme, both of which seek to leverage ICTs to improve the lives
of people worldwide.”
ITU’s Measuring the Information Society report, released every year, is the
world’s most comprehensive snapshot of global ICT trends. It includes ITU’s ICT
Development Index (IDI), a unique global index that ranks 157 countries
according to their level of ICT access, use and skills. The IDI is widely
recognized by government, UN agencies and industry as the most accurate measure
of overall national ICT development.
Note to editors:
ITU statistics are widely recognized as the world’s most reliable and
impartial global data on the state of the global ICT industry. They are used
extensively by leading intergovernmental agencies, financial institutions and
private sector analysts worldwide.
ITU statistics are available at
www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/statistics
An Executive Summary of the Measuring the Information Society 2013 report can
be found at: www.itu.int/go/mis2013
Journalists wishing to receive a free copy of the full MIS 2013 report in PDF
format should contact Sarah Parkes at the ITU Press Office at
sarah.parkes@itu.int.
Download the MIS 2013 infographics at:
www.itu.int/go/mis2013
Follow the discussion on Twitter at: #ITUdata
For more information, please contact:
Sarah Parkes
Chief, Media Relations and Public Information
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