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Industry pundits agree that there are 3 main forces driving the changes in the world TV market at the moment: the availability of large flat panel displays at descending price points, the switch from analogue to digital and the introduction of HDTV.
As potential buyers see more and more HD images on TVs in stores, they will be increasingly attracted to buy HD Ready equipment and ensuring they have HD sources.
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There has been a vicious circle in the past. People have not bought HDTVs because few channels were broadcasting in HDTV. Broadcasters have not been broadcasting in HD because not only did viewers not have HD capable TVs, there were also no programmes available, and equipment was expensive. All these factors are changing at the same time. The prime mover is the fact that HD-Ready TVs are becoming the norm, and in a couple of years, channels not broadcasting in HD will be like those continuing to broadcast in black and white after the colour change-over. Europe's HDTV Beginnings After the launch of Europe’s first HD satellite service – Euro 1080 in 2004, a number of countries in Europe are now starting to roll out HDTV services. Germany's ProSiebenSat1 Group was the first national TV corporation in Europe to use the new high-resolution format, with its two channels broadcasting in HDTV alongside the standard format. Both HD stations started broadcasting on October 26, 2005, via the ASTRA satellite system.
HDTV Roll-Out
According to Pacome Revillon, Managing Director, Euroconsult, “…penetration of HDTV sets should reach 20% of European households in 2010, and close to 10 million households may subscribe to HDTV services at that time…”
According to Euroconsult, the multiplication of HDTV channels, the introduction of HD disc media (Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD) and the development of standards such as the HD Ready label are all instrumental in the adoption of HDTV by TV viewers.
“Germany is currently the most dynamic high definition market from the supply side,” says Revillon. Following the launch last year of two HD channels by ProSiebenSat.1, the pay-TV platform Premiere also introduced a package of three HDTV channels. The development of the German HDTV market will be favoured by the low penetration of terrestrial TV reception, with more than 95% of households receiving TV through satellite and cable.
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