Philippines lags behind Asian neighbors in digital TV popularization

The Philippines lags behind other Asian countries and regions in the popularization of digital TV, according to the latest figures released Thursday by Informa Telecoms and Media, a leading provider of business intelligence and strategic services to the global telecoms and media markets.

The Philippines ranked second from the bottom of the list in terms of digital TV penetration, with just 5 percent in 2009, up from 1 percent in 2005. By 2015, the country's digital TV penetration will only climb to 21 percent.

Indonesia, which is at the bottom of the barrel, also had 1 percent penetration rate in 2005, increased to 2 per cent last year and is to grow more than 14 percent by 2015.

On the other hand, Singapore, China's Hongkong, Australia and New Zealand are expected to attain 100 percent digital TV penetration by 2015. Another four regions are expected to have achieved a penetration rate of 70 percent or more -Japan, Malaysia, South Korea and Taiwan.

Despite the global macro-economic difficulties, more than 35 million homes in Asia upgraded from analog to digital TV in 2009. Also in the year, 26 million new homes subscribed to pay TV, comprising 14 million to cable, 9 million to DTH and 3 million to Internet Protocol Television (IPTV).

Informa Telecoms and Media forecasts showed that those sectors will continue to grow impressively over the next five years. Adam Thomas, Media Research Manager said: "By 2015 there will be well over 400 million digital TV homes, including 40 million taking IPTV, which in turn will generate revenues of more than 40 billion U.S. dollars."

Source: Xinhua