Canada is several months ahead of previous projections when it comes to digital TV subscriptions according to Decima’s latest tracking study of the digital TV services market, The Digital Domain, conducted in the second quarter of 2005. The pace of growth has been so brisk that the number of households subscribing to digital cable and satellite TV will exceed analog by the end of this year. Decima predicts digital households to reach 5.1 million by the end of 2005 and 5.9 million at the end of next year.
The Ottawa-based research company credits the growth to the efforts of cable companies to switch analog subscribers to digital as well as the fact that Bell ExpressVu more than doubled its subscribers in the second quarter of this year. The number of digital TV subscribers in Canada increased by an estimated 178,000 or 4% in the second quarter of 2005 (February/March to May/June), compared to 132,000 or 3% in the same period last year. There were almost 4.7 million digital TV subscribers in Canada at May/June 2005. Other Digital Domain findings include:
· The number of digital cable subscribers increased by an estimated 102,000 or 5% in Q2 2005, an improvement over the same period last year;
· The number of satellite TV subscribers added in Q2 was more than double that added in Q2 2004; and
· The number of households capable of receiving high-definition television (HDTV) programming and those with personal video recorders/digital video recorders continues to grow as cablecos and satellite TV companies see strong demand for higher-end digital set-top boxes with HDTV and PVR/DVR capabilities.
