"Faced with mature sectors in some countries, many Western European TV players are turning their attention to new priorities. They are developing strategies for how to best position themselves within emerging platforms, while ensuring this does not disrupt their established businesses."

Adam Thomas, Media Research Manager, Informa Telecoms & Media

Summary

Western European TV (15th edition) provides vital intelligence on the opportunities presented by these 15 lucrative markets. This year’s research has also been significantly expanded to include Informa’s proprietary data in the areas of: 5-year subscriber forecasts for the top 60 operators, sets per home, digital/analog cable revenue splits, pay DTT, pay/FTA satellite, population movements and household numbers and penetration.

Overview

With analog terrestrial TV expected to become extinct in 2013, Informa’s new research on the Western European TV sector provides an informative insight into the post-switchover world. Indeed, Western Europe provides something of a microcosm for the changes occurring in global TV consumption patterns. Traditional pay-TV is coming under pressure from several directions. Free and low-cost options are forcing premium pay-TV services to justify their subscription prices. This has led to an increasing reliance on technology innovations such as “TV Everywhere”, HDTV, VOD, DVRs and 3DTV to “prove” their added value.

The economic downturn has also presented a further challenge for pay TV, as it bids for diminishing consumer spending power against a range of alternative entertainment options. There is still little evidence that over-the-top (OTT) TV services are taking significant numbers away from pay TV – creating the much talked about cord-cutters. But as OTT improves its offering, pay-TV operators are sensibly adapting to changing consumer tastes with new initiatives such as multi-screen strategies.

Use Western European TV research to benefit from

• Find out how the success of DTT is transforming the region
• Discover if pay-TV subscriber numbers are holding up against free/low-cost alternatives
• Evaluate investment opportunities in light of the global economic downturn
• Learn which new technologies are succeeding in Western Europe
• Calculate how changing patterns of public TV consumption can benefit you

Major industry questions answered in this research includes

• Has the global economic situation had a major impact on TV in Western Europe?
• How are key markets like the UK and France adapting to changing consumer demands for TV delivery?
• How has DTT successfully started to make inroads into the dominance of other platforms?
• Will the growing number of low-cost or free-to-air multichannel services harm the chances of pay TV?
• Was the early promise of 3DTV just hype or is it coming to fruition?

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