[Satellite News 03-30-11] Latin America is projected to be the fastest growing television market through the next few years, according to an IMS Research report released March 30.
    IMS predicts that Latin America’s TV installation base will increase around 26 percent throughout the next five years — a significantly higher rate than in any other region, according to the report, “Online TV Set Shipment Database.” The IMS forecast includes data and information regarding TV shipments split by technology, iDTV demand and TV households by reception platform in 68 countries.
    The results should be encouraging for satellite operators such as Intelsat, Hispasat, SES World Skies and others targeting the Latin American region, as increased installations tend to lead to increased demand for pay-TV and digital TV services.
    IMS Research also noted a changing global demand in LCDs, OLEDs and iDTVs through 2015. LCD shipments showed 29 percent year-on-year growth in 2010, which is less than the 43 percent year-on-year growth reported in 2009. Year-on-year growth for LCD TV shipments will continue to decline and, by 2015, will be less than 1 percent, representing a saturation of the LCD TV market, IMS said.
    OLEDs will start gaining presence in the television market, with main manufacturers launching their models in the next couple of years. IMS Research forecasts that by the end of 2015, 86 percent of the TV sets shipped worldwide will have an integrated digital tuner. The firm also expects a 17 percent compound annual growth rate for iDTVs between 2009 and 2015.
    Separately, IMS Research also published a study, “On-Demand Services Business Models: Video, Games & Over-the-Top — 2011 edition,” which includes estimates that 13.2 percent of the world’s digital pay-TV subscribers were requesting video-on-demand content via their set-top box by the end of 2010.
IMS forecasts the number of pay-TV households using video-on-demand services to triple during the next five years, from 53.9 million at the end of 2010 to 157.3 million at the end of 2015.
    In the report, IMS Principal Analyst Anna Hunt said that operators generated $4.3 billion in on-demand revenues in 2010, with traditional closed-network video-on-demand accounting for 99.5 percent. “There is much interest from pay-TV operators in new revenue streams, so games on-demand and OTT integration into set-tops are getting quite a bit of attention. Nevertheless, traditional [video-on-demand] services offering TV shows and movies will continue to be the main drivers for growth in on-demand revenues.”