European HD TV market: a two-speed transition
Monday, May 31st, 2010In the wake of the gradual transition to high definition transmission, HD TVs are now, obviously, one of the Consumer Electronics fads in Europe. However, figures show that the proportion of HD in TV sales, and hence the HDTV household penetration, varies greatly from a country to another.
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Of the 10.5 million TV sets that were sold in the U.K. in 2009, 98%, or 10.3 million, were HD. With 67% of households already owning flat screens (the majority of which are HD), the U.K. appears as one of the leading countries in the high definition transition in Europe. Similarly, HD TVs accounted for 97% of TV sales in Belgium in 2009.
Although they have experienced a significant increase in HD TV sales over the past 4 years, France, Netherlands and Germany are still below the 2008 levels of the UK and Belgium, as only 85% of TV sales were in the HD segment in 2009.
Perhaps the less homogenious sales figures are those of the Central and Eastern European countries. In Romania for instance, nearly 1 in 2 consumers opted for a Cathodic Ray Tube (CRT ) in 2009. Only 10% of Romanian households owned a flat screen TV in 2009, against 19% in Hungary and 35% in both the Czech Republic and Poland. In the same year, barely 7% of households in Turkey owned an LCD.
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Consequently, at the time when non HD TVs are completely desappearing from the consumer elctronics stores of many European countries, CRTs and non HD flat screens are still making their way to the houses of many Central and Eastern European people.
On the other hand, a corollary of this two-speed transition would be the great potential of growth that HD TV still has in many countries.
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Ghana has become the first African country to have SMART TV, a new digital terrestrial television service launched by Next Generation Broadcasting (NGB) in collaboration with Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC).
DNA, the Finnish telecom operator, announced today that it will buy Welho, the Finnish cable television and internet service provider, from Sanoma Entertainment Group for a price of €200 million. The transaction will boost DNA’s position in the market making it the largest cable television provider in Finland with 43% market share. Sanoma will become the second largest shareholder in DNA with a holding of 21%.