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Overview For many years the pay TV sector has been dominated by cable. The vast majority of households receive free-to-air and premium channels via the platform. However, its dominance has [...]

Overview Singapore is a small market of just over one million TV households. Efforts to inject competition into both the pay TV and terrestrial sectors have been unsuccessful, as there [...]

Overview South Korea is one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world. The country is making rapid progress towards its goal of total digitalisation by 2010. By end-2006, [...]

Overview The U.S. television market is one of the largest in the world and is comfortably the most lucrative. Its 110 million TV homes far exceed any of the other [...]

Overview Digital TV penetration continued its impressive growth in 2005 and 1H06. According to the regulator Ofcom, 72.5% of UK households received digital TV signals at end-March 2006. A further [...]

Overview Compared to some of its European neighbours, pay TV penetration in Spain is low. However, competition in the sector intensified significantly in 2005 and that is set to continue [...]

Overview Having joined the EU in May 2004, Poland still has some way to go before solving its social and economic problems, with high unemployment and an untrained workforce cited [...]

Overview Sweden has one of the most advanced TV markets in Europe. It continues to progress well towards its goal of switching off analogue terrestrial signals in 2008. This contrasts [...]

Nearly 40 million digital TV households will be added in 2006, bringing the global total to 183 million. Digital penetration of TV households will reach 16% by year-end. The North [...]

Overview Italy's TV sector remains dominated by a small number of broadcasters and platforms. News Corp.-controlled Sky Italia has been a success, despite being bound by regulatory restrictions. It has, [...]

Overview Already one of the largest broadcast markets in the Americas, changes and developments in 2006 will offer plenty of opportunity for further investment and are likely to initiate a [...]

Overview The pay TV sector continued to grow in 2005, driven by the arrival of three new operators in 2003/4. The incumbent cable operator i-Cable completed its transition to digital, [...]

Overview The government is determined to complete the transition to digital broadcasting by July 2011. This target is shaping the business strategies of all Japanese broadcasters. After a slow start, [...]

Overview China is the largest TV nation in the world, with over 340 million TV households at the end of 2005. There are 140 million cable households. The broadcasting landscape [...]

Overview India's disorganised pay TV market was anticipating an overhaul during 2005, with the launch of two DTH players and the implementation of conditional access (CA) in the cable sector [...]

Overview Despite its well-documented economic difficulties, Argentina increasingly offers international media investors prime opportunities. The country is now a relatively inexpensive place in which to do business. The cost of [...]

Overview France continues to be at the centre of broadcasting innovation. The rising popularity of its IPTV and DTT platforms has triggered consolidation in both the cable and satellite sectors, [...]

Overview The Brazilian economy continued to grow in 2005, although the 2.3% GDP increase was below the government's 4% target and less impressive than the 4.9% growth of 2004. The [...]

Overview Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd (PBL), News Corp. and Telstra are the dominant forces in terrestrial TV, pay TV and telecoms. The three giants of the Australian communications sector are [...]

Overview Canada has one of the most developed global television markets. More than 80% of Canada's 12 million TV households subscribe to cable or satellite pay TV, and IPTV services [...]

Overview Multichannel television is well established, with about 94% of TV households receiving either cable or satellite television. Cable is the dominant platform, present in 60% of households. Only around [...]

Overview With 108.4 million TV households, the U.S. television market is one of the biggest in the world and is comfortably the richest. TV penetration passed 98% in the early [...]

Website addresses Asia Pacific AUSTRALIA ABA www.aba.gov.au ABC www.abc.net.au ACCC www.accc.gov.au ACNielsen www.acnielsen.com.au AFC www.afc.gov.au Austar www.austarunited.com.au CAT www.cableandtelecoms.com.au CEASA www.geko.net.au/~ceasa Department of Communication www.dcita.gov.au FACTS www.facts.org.au Fox Sports www.foxsports.com.au [...]

Overview The Spanish pay TV market is in flux, with the DTH sector re-establishing itself after a merger and cable TV in the midst of consolidation and digital rollout. There [...]

Overview Despite being the world's second-largest economy, a decade-long recession and intense competition between its commercial broadcasters and pay-TV platforms has taken a toll on the TV market. The pay-TV [...]

Overview The Netherlands has one of the highest cable penetrations in the world. However, the conversion to digital is held up by consumers' reluctance to pay more and government over-regulation. [...]

Overview In May 2003, the State Administration for Radio, Film and TV (SARFT) unveiled a plan to boost the number of digital households to 30 million by end-2005. However, many [...]

Overview UK television is upbeat. Free-to-air DTT service Freeview is booming, DTH service BSkyB continues to grow steadily, while the cable sector appears on a more positive footing after major [...]

ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line). A technology used to transmit broadband down the existing copper wire telephone infrastructure. Supports data rates ranging from 1.5Mbps to 9Mbps downstream (to the subscriber) [...]

Overview Although the terrestrial sector opened up to greater competition, the sector remains a closed shop with only StarHub Cable Vision offering a full pay TV service. Attempts to create [...]

Overview For a country renowned for its acceptance of technological innovation, Korea's TV sector has trailed behind some of the region's other advanced territories. The only pay TV available before [...]

Overview With the digital TV penetration rate at about 30%, plans for an analogue switch-off in February 2008 remain ambitious. DTH is still the most popular digital platform, the majority [...]

Overview The Polish TV sector remains one of Eastern Europe's most competitive. However, the global economic downturn has affected Poland. The country has slumped from being the region's fastest-growing economy [...]

Overview Brazil is the largest and most populated country in Latin America. With 182 million people, and around 39 million TV households, Brazil is in a highly influential position. Its [...]

Overview After several years of frantic merger, acquisition and restructuring activity, the Canadian media sector settled down to more regular patterns in 2003 and 2004. The wave of activity in [...]

Overview While Mexico's membership of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) since 1994 has provided an advantage over its Latin American neighbours, the Mexican economy is by no means [...]

Overview Although the TV sector is highly competitive, the prospects for a viable multichannel service improved considerably during 2003. The launch of Sky Italia created a single multichannel platform, with [...]

Digital television crossed several landmarks in February 2004, with 10% of global homes receiving digital signals--or nearly 100 million households. This is triple the 1999 figure and contrasts against 2.3 [...]

Overview After the turmoil of 2002--which saw the collapse of the once mighty Kirch Group, a 10% fall in TV advertising revenues, a decline in cable TV subscriber numbers and [...]

Overview Despite its enormous potential, the Indian TV market has suffered through a mixture of excessive regulation, piracy and its numerous language groups. However, the ongoing problems are not enough [...]

Overview France has a reputation of being a TV pioneer in Europe. It was the first European country to launch a premium channel and has since become one of the [...]

Overview Two pay-TV platforms launched in Hong Kong in 2H 2003, with another promised in early 2004. These moves came despite hesitation after the licences were awarded in 2000. The [...]

Overview The Australian TV sector is always lively and interesting. The market is highly competitive--both terrestrially and within the pay TV community. This rivalry has intensified in recent years due [...]

Overview Argentina is Latin America's third largest economy behind Brazil and Mexico. However, its heavy export focus means that it suffers when its neighbours struggle. In 2002 Argentina stopped repayments [...]

Overview About 40% of the UK population receives digital TV signals--or about 10 million homes. However, Sky appears to be the only company in a position to enjoy this high [...]

Overview Japan has several well-established broadcast platforms, with more scheduled to follow shortly. It faces high start-up costs and has little compelling content. Terrestrial TV is better placed. Although difficulties [...]

Overview With 107 million TV households, the U.S. television market is one of the biggest in the world--and it is easily the richest. TV penetration passed 98% in the early [...]

Website addresses Asia Pacific AUSTRALIA ABA www.aba.gov.au ABC www.abc.net.au ACNielsen www.acnielsen.com.au AFC www.afc.gov.au Austar www.austarunited.com.au CAT www.cableandtelecoms.com.au CEASA www.geko.net.au/~ceasa Department of www.dcita.gov.au Communication FACTS www.facts.org.au Fox Sports www.foxsports.com.au Foxtel www.foxtel.com.au [...]

ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line). A technology used to transmit broadband down the existing copper wire telephone infrastructure. Supports data rates ranging from 1.5Mbps to 9Mbps downstream (to the subscriber) [...]

Digital television is expected to pass several landmarks by end-2003, with 10% of global homes receiving digital signals or nearly 100 million households. This is nearly triple the 1999 figure [...]