Advanced Television

Bright future for broadcast technology sector

January 3, 2014

The IABM (International Association of Broadcasting Manufacturers) has published the key findings of its latest business intelligence reports.

The Industry Index report covers the performance of 70 companies in the North American and European broadcast and media technology sector, providing a benchmark and allowing them to track emerging trends. One of the key findings was that while North American companies have faster growing sales, European companies are reporting higher profits.

“Overall, larger companies are growing sales over 5 per cent per annum while SMEs are struggling with a shrinking sales of minus 5 per cent. Year on year for the total market, however, aggregate sales figures are actually 4,5 per cent and profit growth is minus 24 per cent,” says Peter White, director general, IABM.

However, the outlook for 2014 is positive based on the results of the Industry Trends survey. Senior decision-makers from a cross section of organisations in the global broadcast manufacturing and media technology sector indicated increased confidence in the market with 43 per cent forecasting improvements in 2014.

“A total of 60 per cent of respondents indicated that confidence was increased or significantly increased for the year ahead, while only 6 per cent had the opposite view. This is a significant change from last quarter where forecasts for the upcoming year where the most negative in four years,” says White.

Other key findings include 75 per cent of companies reporting order levels that are expected or better than expected with the majority of sales coming from Western Europe, North America and Asia.

“There continues to be investment in research and development,” says White. “However, challenges such as manufacturing and development capability combined with skills and staff issues have been identified as the most significant factors that are limiting contract and order fulfilment.”

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