Global DAS Revenue to Surpass US$ 13 Billion in 2015

Total global revenue from distributed antenna system (DAS) will surpass US$ 13 billion in 2015, according to an In-Stat research report.‚ By 2012, the value for all DAS projects in North America, with the exception of metro area outdoor DAS, nears US$ 2 billion. In the Caribbean and Latin America regions, DAS revenue will increase 20 percent or more over the forecast period. By 2015, hospitals and healthcare will represent almost half of the DAS revenue opportunities for indoor deployments in Western Europe.

In Eastern Europe, the build-up for DAS starts modestly, but eventually grows to 3897 new deployments in 2015. In 2010, 15,000 new nodes were deployed in metro area outdoor DAS.

Pay-TV STB Market Declined 10.2 percent in Q1 2011

The global STB market declined 10.2 percent in Q1 2011 to US$ 3.1 billion, primarily attributed to normal seasonal trends, according to Infonetics Research. The cable STB segment continues to contract as subscriber growth remains limited across the lucrative North America and EMEA markets and demand decreases for advanced services; as such, the cable STB segment experienced the strongest quarter-over-quarter revenue decline, down 12.9 percent.

Lower than expected demand for IPTV services in EMEA during Q1 2011 resulted in strong decline in shipments into this region, causing an 11.7 percent drop in global IP STB revenue. Demand for OTT media services remained strong in Q1, but challenges lie ahead for this category. During the first quarter, hybrid STBs represented 8 percent of revenue and 7 percent of shipments. Netgem leads in hybrid IP/OTA STBs, Motorola leads in hybrid IP/QAM STBs, and ADB leads in hybrid IP/DVB-S STBs.

Motorola and Pace continue to battle it out for overall STB market leadership, with Motorola leading in revenue and Pace leading in unit shipments. Cisco is the market share leader in both revenue and shipments in the IP STB market. Echostar leads in worldwide satellite STB revenue, in a tight race with Technicolor.

Telco TV and Internet TV Capture Share from Cable TV in Mature Markets

According to new market data from ABI Research, at the end of first quarter of 2011, 11.3 million pay-TV subscribers were added. "By the end of 2011, the total number of pay-TV subscriptions is expected to exceed 759 million," said Jason Blackwell, practice director of ABI Research.

Cable TV still maintains the largest market share; however, its relative share of subscriptions dropped from 72 percent in 2009 to 69 percent in 2010. Cable TV operators in Western Europe and North America, in particular, faced subscriber losses in 2010 as new television services such as Telco TV and online TV replaced traditional cable TV services.

However, in emerging markets such as Latin America, cable TV will continue to grow.

Analog switch-off is taking place across the world. The momentum of the process is especially high in Western Europe, with the United Kingdom and Italy expecting to complete analog switch-off in 2012. Asia-Pacific countries such as China and India have taken the first steps to switch off analog transmission, and the process is expected to be complete by 2015.

The emergence of digital TV in different pay-TV platforms begins to offer more choices to consumers, notes research analyst Khin Sandi Lynn. Digital terrestrial TV (DTT) channels and high definition (HD) channels are gaining popularity in pay-TV markets. It is expected that there will be more than 230 million HDTV subscriptions across different platforms at the end of 2011.

IPTV Adoption to Reach over 70 Million By 2014

IPTV adoption has increased at a 92.4 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the past six years, according to SNL Kagan. IPTV subscriptions are expected to grow from 40 million in 2010 to more than 70 million by 2014. IPTV video service revenues will grow from US$ 12.9 billion in 2010 to US$ 27 billion in 2014, equal to 11 percent of global pay-TV revenues. Western Europe will continue to lead IPTV subscriptions, reaching 26.7 million households by 2014. Latin America and Eastern Europe will see subscriber increases at respective 114 percent and 24.4 percent CAGR between 2010 and 2014.

Digital TV Homes to Double within Five Years

The number of digital TV homes will double between 2010 and 2016 to 1189 million, as per a report published by Digital TV Research. It has been estimated that digital penetration will climb from 42.5 percent at end-2010 to 80 percent by 2016. By 2016, 33 countries will be completely digital compared with only one (Finland) at end-2010. Of the 613 million digital TV homes to be added between 2010 and 2016, 256 million will come from digital cable. Primary FTA DTT will bring in a further 154 million, with pay DTT adding 5 million. Pay IPTV will increase by 121 million, with pay DTH up 56 million and FTA DTH 22 million.

There were still 780 million analog TV households by end-2010. However, this total will fall to 297 million by end-2016. Analog penetration will drop from 57.5 percent at end-2010 to 20.0 percent by end-2016.

Digital cable will be the most popular platform by end-2016, accounting for 30.8 percent of the world's TV households, with analog cable still serving 5.2 percent of TV households. Pay digital DTH penetration will be 13.1 percent, with FTA digital DTH accounting for 8.0 percent. Pay IPTV penetration will climb to 10.5 percent, up from only 2.6 percent at end-2010. About 16.7 percent of homes will be primary FTA DTT at end-2016, with 0.9 percent pay DTT. Analog terrestrial TV will be taken by nearly 15 percent of the world's TV households, down from 36 percent at end-2010.

IPTV Subscription in Asia Pacific to Nudge 100 Million by 2016

The Asia-Pacific region will see penetration increase in IPTV subscription from 29 percent in 2010 to 73 percent in 2016, an increase of nearly 400 million homes, according to a report from Digital TV Research. These rapid gains are attributed to the region's fast-growth economies, higher disposable incomes, and rising populations. China and India have a massive influence over the region, mainly due to their 1 billion-plus populations. Together, they will have 608 million TV households by 2016, and they will provide 467 million digital TV homes combined or 77 percent of Asia Pacific's total.

Although China and India dominate the region, several other large countries, especially Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, have underdeveloped TV markets. By 2016, these five countries will have 127 million TV households combined, but only 38 percent digital penetration and 24 percent pay-TV penetration.

Despite the region's rapid switchover to digital TV services, there is still believed to be plenty of room for growth for some time to come. By 2016, Indonesia and the Philippines are expected to still have analog penetration of 85 percent and 79 percent, respectively, while China will still have 83 million analog homes and India 58 million. Out of the 388 million digital TV homes to be added between 2010 and 2016, digital cable is expected to contribute the most with 188 million new subscribers, followed by IPTV with 85 million, then DTT with 68 million, and pay DTH is expected to come last with an additional 29 million subscribers.

Total penetration of pay-TV services is expected to rise from 49 percent in 2010 to 63 percent in 2016, adding 156 million subscribers to reach a total of 522 million. China is expected to provide the most with 296 million subscribers, followed by India with a further 133 million. Cable TV will remain the highest earner, though its revenues will remain flat at US$ 21 billion during the forecast period. Digital cable TV revenues will climb by US$ 10.2 billion between 2010 and 2016 to US$ 17.3 billion, with analog cable TV falling from US$ 12.2 billion to US$ 4.2 billion.

The good news for cable operators is that the number of digital subscribers will nearly triple over the same period to nearly 300 million, though the analog total will fall to a third of its 2010 total.

Digital cable penetration will be highest in China (52 percent), Singapore (47 percent), and South Korea (43 percent) by 2016. China and India will together supply 88 percent of the total digital subscriptions. The number of homes paying for IPTV services in the region is expected to reach nearly 100 million by 2016, or 11.8 percent of TV households. Penetration is expected to be highest in Hong Kong and Singapore in 2016, at 38 percent and 36 percent, respectively, while China is expected to contribute 70 million IPTV subscriptions to the total by 2016.

IPTV subscribers are expected to overtake pay DTH in 2013, with nearly 30 million pay DTH homes to be added between 2010 and 2016, taking the total number of DTH subscribers to 66 million. India is expected to have the largest base of DTH subscribers with 45 million by 2016, although penetration will be higher in Malaysia (40 percent) and New Zealand (39 percent).