Kagan Forecasts 50% of TV Households Will Have Digital TV by 2007

MONTEREY, Calif., Aug. 11, 2005/Satnews Daily/ — A recent study from Kagan Research has predicted that 20.4 percent  of TV households to be digital by end-2005, growing to 34.7 percent in 2006 and 51.5 percent by 2007.

In the new report titled HDTV Spectrum Monetization 2005: The Economics of Datacasting and Multicasting, Kagan said the transition from analog to digital broadcasting has cost broadcasters billions of dollars.

In the transition to a digital world, consumer-electronics companies, cable operators, satellite operators and programmers naturally stand to benefit -- but comparatively little attention has been paid to TV station owners, the report said. They have borne a large financial burden in pushing the transition along, but have seen little to no return for their efforts. The answer may lie in using the digital spectrum in ways unavailable to broadcasters in the analog world.

“With over-the-air HD channels becoming increasingly ubiquitous, the industry is at the beginning of a hockey-stick growth curve that could positively impact a number of industries,” reports Kagan Research Associate Patrick Johnson. “For station owners, the question is, what is the most profitable use of their 6MHz of spectrum, given the 19.4 Mbps of throughput available?”

Kagan says the report also presents TV station owners with 50 economic models for monetizing the digital spectrum. Kagan's expert analysts have crafted these exclusive financial permutations to help broadcasters determine what the future holds as they seek new digital revenue streams -- including 30 datacasting, 10 multicasting and 10 multichannel scenarios.

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