February 2010

GLOBAL DTH TO GROW
JUST 4.6% PER ANNUM

Despite its relatively recent emergence in India, globally, DTH is a mature product and can only look toward incremental growth.

A recent NSR report - Global Direct DTH Markets, makes some significant predictions. NSR has not only looked at the prevailing market trends, but gone on to analyze their impact, both in the past year and forwards until 2018. NSR senior analyst Prashant Butani stated, "Television is an industry that everyone can talk about because we are all part of the audience. However, quantifying market trends is a different issue altogether, and this is where NSR's 10 region, 100 operator, 2,800 data point forecast delivers the bottom line to those that want more detail. NSR's report further segments these numbers into 4 product categories that allow companies serving this industry to go after their target market more effectively."

The report spans 10 regions and finds both similarities and differences that have made the whole DTH market greater than the sum of its parts.

NSR is an international market research and consulting firm specialising in satellite and wireless technology and applications.

SMALL REVENUE GROWTH

The most significant - and disturbing prediction is financial. Even though DTH platforms worldwide are focusing on increasing ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) by pushing premium services, the NSR report predicts that global DTH industry revenues will grow from $65 billion in 2008 to just $100 billion in 10 years, ie by 2018.

MARKET FRAGMENTATION

The reports points towards market fragmentation, and increased competition, from other sectors such as not only Cable TV, but also IPTV, and the internet - particularly in advanced markets such as the USA and France.

The report suggests that DTH subscribers will grow from 114 million in 2008 to 209 million by 2018.

However, while there were globally, 99 DTH operators were beaming over 13,800 channels at the end of 2008, it is predicted that more than 21,000 channels will be beamed from DTH platforms, by end 2018.

MARKET CATEGORISATION

Very broadly, the NSR report categorises the global DTH market into a mature market segment, and an emerging market.

The mature markets include North America, Western Europe and East Asia dominates all channel, subscriber and revenue counts.

Growth in these regions is predicted to come from premium services such as High Definition (HD) and Digital Video Recorders (DVRs).

On the other hand, Central and Eastern Europe, South Asia and South America are on a high growth curve. These markets will be led by plain vanilla DTH subscribers as the biggest drivers.

COMPETITION

Another trend that defines the mature markets is fierce competition. Cable & Satellite battle it out, and the threat of IPTV looms large in countries such as France and the US.

Elsewhere, DTH platforms are cooperating with telecom giants to deliver Triple play - voice, video and data over a combination of delivery media.

Foes turn into friends as platforms consolidate in order to achieve the critical mass required to bring in advertising revenues.

The NSR report has not only looked at the prevailing market trends, but gone on to analyze their impact, both in the past year and forwards until 2018. n