Advanced Television

Over 1.4bn subs for TV services by 2013

April 14, 2009

Broadband households in Europe and the US consistently rank primetime anytime VOD services as the most valuable service out of all TV 2.0 offerings, according to the Parks Associates report 'Television Services: The Global Outlook'.

The international research firm says that primetime anytime services, which allow viewers to watch a show on-demand on their TV regardless of its original air date, will help service providers gain and retain customers in the competitive global market for TV services. The number of households worldwide subscribing to TV services will exceed 1.4 billion by 2013.

“Online video is not robbing primetime of its audience but supplementing it,” said Jayant Dasari, research analyst, Parks Associates. “The majority of US broadband households use online video to catch up on their TV viewing, and 36 per cent of those who pay for Internet video content have increased consumption of primetime television. Moving video from the PC to the TV is a natural progression, one that aligns with consumers' current behaviour.”

Competition among service providers has increased substantially in past few years. For example, while cable operators retain the largest share of the US television service market, subscriptions to telco/IPTV services grew over 110 per cent from 2007 to 2008. Providers can overcome the challenges of this shifting market by leveraging primetime anytime services, which will increase customer satisfaction and create avenues for new revenue-generating service strategies, such as ad-supported VOD offerings.

Categories: Broadband, Broadcast, Cable, DTH/Satellite, DTT/DSO, IPTV, OTT, Pay TV, Research Library, VOD