The State of Digital Television (DTV) in Europe
What’s interesting to note in the U.S. is that television viewing is broken into two categories now: overall and “live” viewing, with the latter being actual television viewing and the former including time-shifted or internet content on the television screen. Live viewing now makes up only 93% of total viewing, showing a marked increase over the past few years of time-shifted or internet content.
Another study also shows that time with all major media—internet and mobile included—is on the rise. Yet television viewing gave up some ground to internet usage and a significant amount of ground to mobile device time. This study, by eMarketer, may be a bit inaccurate, though, as it accounted for multitasking as equal time for each media device or platform.
Europe already leads the U.S. in terms of online video consumption, and with the lines blurring between the desktop and the TV, it’s highly likely that television viewing as a whole will increase, if catch-up services are included in the numbers. Live viewing consumption, however, will almost certainly fall off.
Where Do We Stand?
The European Union took the early lead in beginning the digital transition, but the staggered approach has put it behind the curve for a cohesive switchover.
A number of countries in Europe have made a partial switch, and all have undergone the initial step. But it seems that we will be well into 2013 before the final analogue signal is turned off. This could hamper the efforts to produce a consistent spectrum reallocation for mobile data providers that are hungry for more mobile data bandwidth.
In conclusion, the U.K.’s retrofitting is also a bit of a cautionary tale that may play out across Europe.
Cyprus faced a similar issue when it chose MPEG-2 as the standard for digital transmissions in March 2009 but then changed its mind in November 2009, opting instead for H.264 transmission. This occurred just prior to the digital broadcasting debut of free view channels by the Cyprus Broadcasting Corp.; private TV stations are set to transition sometime in 2011.
Going back to our initial premise, though, the extra time taken to enact an analogue switch off may not be a bad thing, if the lessons learned from the U.S. market switchover are any indication. By the time that the last analogue broadcast signal is switched off in Europe, it’s very possible that internet-integrated televisions (or Google TV or Apple TV or even a pan-European version of YouView) will have taken hold, offering more than just the basic free over-the-air channels for your viewing pleasure.
This article originally ran in the 2011 Streaming Media Industry Sourcebook as "The End of Analogue (but Not Quite Yet): The State of DTV."