At the end 2012, North America and Western Europe had effectively made the transition to digital terrestrial television (DTT) broadcasts. The next milestone year (2015) was established by the ITU and a number of countries in Eastern Europe and Middle-East Africa are hoping to satisfy this goal. With a later start to digital services a number of countries in these regions are starting with DVB-T2, avoiding the conundrum facing established DVB-T markets looking to migrate to the newer technology.

Parks Associates research finds over 70% of pay-TV subscribers in Western Europe are able to receive a TV Everywhere/multiscreen service. In Eastern Europe, multiscreen availability topped 25% of pay-TV households in early 2013. However, ARPU remains low, pushing many operators to test new business models such as  pricing.

The 2013 edition of ITU’s flagship regulatory report ‘Trends in Telecommunication Reform’, released today, highlights the increasingly global nature of information and communication technology (ICT) regulation and the crucial link between effective regulation of the ICT sector and the range, quality and affordability of ICT services available to consumers and business users alike.

Companies like Netflix, Hulu, Apple, and Amazon helped drive the over-the-top (OTT) video market past $8 billion in 2012. The three largest markets—North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific—experienced YoY growth in excess of 50% in 2012. The continued spread of connected CE and increasingly mobile devices, like tablets, are expected to push the market past $20 billion by 2015, according to ABI Research.

Consumers are increasingly taking control of their entertainment experience, multitasking while watching television, integrating second screen devices into their viewing experience, and viewing more Internet-based content, according to a new survey released today at the NAB show in Las Vegas by Accenture.

Cloud-based TV service revenues will increase from US$120 million in 2013 to more than US$750 milion by 2017, according to a new study by Multimedia Research Group (MRG). Garnering the lion's share of those revenues will be cloud services for cable operators, followed by satellite and then IPTV.

Cloud service isn’t a flashy new trend; it’s a steady migration away from legacy hardware and software services. Although not every pay-TV operator is likely to decide to scrap an entire legacy infrastructure or platform for the cloud, any operator can benefit today.

New Technologies and Solutions Will Drive Strong Growth and Increase Competition

At Satellite 2013 in Washington, D.C., Satellite Markets and Research Editor-in-Chief Virgil Labrador spoke with Steve Collar, CEO, O3B Networks who provided an update on their upcoming launch of their new satellites in the second half of 2013 and their future prospects.

As 3D TV continues to grow, competition between the main two 3D technologies is heating up. Film patterned retarder is finally catching up to the more established shutter glass approach. According to the NPD DisplaySearch  demand for 3D patterned retarder (3D PR) film is forecast to grow 104% Y/Y in Q4’12 and reach 34 million units in 2013.

Pay TV revenues in Asia Pacific will be $12 billion higher in 2018 ($43.9 billion total) than in 2012, according to a new report from Digital TV Research. In fact,  the Digital TV Asia Pacific report estimates that pay TV revenues (subscriptions  and on-demand) will grow by $2.1 billion in 2013 to $33.9 billion.