Free DTT rolled out to 44m European homes

By
Tim Westcott

March 01, 2011

Europe is heading to its self-imposed target of 2012 for analogue switch-off. While digital terrestrial television (DTT) is making progress at very different speeds at national level, major markets like France, Italy and the UK have been transformed by DTT, with incumbent broadcasters launching spin-off channels and new players entering the free-to-air market. A second wave of pay DTT services has also had more success than their predecessors.

Analogue television signals are due to switch off in most of Europe by the end of next year. Digital terrestrial television (DTT) is a very different phenomenon from country to country. The TV market has been transformed in the UK, Italy, Spain and France as free-to-air DTT services have given the majority of households their first experience of multichannel television.

Although a mixed schedule, general entertainment, format is that of the vast majority of DTT channels, DTT has also allowed many incumbent broadcasters to enter the thematic field, with news, children's and sports services. In some cases, theme channels have moved out from pay to benefit from the wider distribution offered by free DTT.

The first wave of DTT launches in the UK and Spain were pay TV services. However, in all three countries, attempts to launch a new technology against well-established cable and satellite pay TV operators failed. A second wave of pay DTT services has proved to have more staying-power.

Limited spectrum capacity generally weakened the competitive threat of DTT against cable and satellite pay TV. Satellite pay platforms in particular have also aggressively ramped up their offering of HD channels to emphasise their advantage over DTT, and 3D TV offerings have so far been exclusive to cable and satellite.

Highlights:

Growth of free DTT has gathered pace as analogue switch off deadline of 2012 approaches
Choice of channels has expanded dramatically, with 357 free-to-air channels on DTT in Europe
Impact of DTT has less dramatic in densely cabled countries, although pay DTT has made inroads in the Netherlands
A second wave of pay DTT services has proved more sustainable, though most are still loss-making.

Tables and charts included:

Analogue switch-off targets in Europe
Annual advertising revenue trends for major TV groups in Europe (2006 vs 2010)
Europe: households with primary TV set converted to digital (m)
Digital TV penetration (primary TV set) to end 2010
Free-to-air digital terrestrial channels in Europe
DTT multiplexes, coverage and compression

Pages: 23

Tables & charts: 7

Tags:

Countries: Austria Belgium Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hungary Ireland Italy Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Malta Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russia Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey UK Ukraine
Companies: Antena 3 BBC Channel 4 KPN ITV Mediaset M6 MTG News Corporation Prisa Telecinco TF1

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