Here are some recent news items regarding the DTV transition around the world.
DVB has an article on a study, "Digital Terrestrial TV: Prospects in the Enlarged EU' by Juniper Research. The article, EU Digital Terrestrial TV Households to hit 55 million by 2009, says this 55 million represents 55 percent of all digital households in the European Union and 30 percent of all TV households in the EU. The report, which includes BSkyB's latest free-to-air satellite package, says the United Kingdom will remain the EU country with the highest overall level of digitalization, with a forecast rate of 80 to 90 percent in 2009. Other countries with strong growth in DTV households include Finland (85 percent by 2009), Italy (83 percent) and Spain (77 percent). The report said the prognosis for pay digital terrestrial TV (DTT) services is "less hopeful."
Report author Dr. Windsor Holden was concerned that some free channels in the UK could lose public funding from 2007. "Quite clearly, the success of digital terrestrial television in the UK is due to the availability of a significant number of additional free-to-air services, most of which-such as BBC4 and Cbeebies-are provided by the BBC," he said. "Were any future government to adopt the subscription model recommended in Beyond the Charter, then it is likely that take-up of digital services would decline markedly." The paper can be downloaded from http://www.juniperresearch.com. While it is free, registration is required.
People's Daily Online from China had an article last week, Over 30 million digital TV in China by 2008 that says the number of DTV users in China should hit over 1 million by the end of this year. It also said China will produce about six and a half million digital TV sets this year and 20 million sets in 2008. The article noted that China is developing digital video broadcast standards that are compatible with the DVB-C standard and now has two patented standards developed by Chinese institutions.
The DTV transition in Finland is putting financial pressure on Finnish broadcaster YLE. An article on YLE's web site, TV License Fee Hike said "YLE has been struggling financially because it has had to maintain both analogue and digital TV broadcasts for the past few years." It plans to raise the license fee by nearly 4 percent in January, to 193.95 euros.
