Digital TV homes will hit 1.65 billion by 2020

The global number of digital TV homes will increase by more than 1 billion between 2010 and 2020 to reach 1.65 billion, driven by gains in the Asia Pacific region, according to new research.

Digital TV Research claims that digital TV households in Asia Pacific will climb from 226.1 million in 2010 to 605.5 million in 2015 and reach 913.5 million in 2020.

“The number of digital TV households in Asia Pacific will increased by 400 million between 2014 and 2020, with 93 million to be added in 2015 alone. The region will supply two-thirds of the 608 million digital TV household additions between 2014 and 2020,” according to the report’s author Simon Murray.

Sub-Saharan Africa was also identified as a high growth region. Here the number of digital TV homes will more double from 27.5 million in 2014 to 67.8 million in 2020.

Over the same time period the number of digital TV homes in Latin America will climb from 76.7 million to 151.8 million, while China will be the biggest single digital market in 2020 with 454.3 million digital TV homes.

In Western Europe, digital TV gains will be more modest, with the number of homes climbing from 158.6 million in 2014 to a predicted173.5 million in 2020.

Total global digital TV penetration will reach 97.6% of television households by end-2020, up from 40.5% at end-2010 and 67.2% at end-2014, according to the research.