ARIZONA: With digital terrestrial transmission gaining acceptance worldwide, high-tech market research firm In-Stat/MDR forecasts a boom in the sale of DTV sets.
According to In-Stat/MDR, with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) mandating that DTV tuners be integrated into all TV sets larger than 13-inches by mid 2007, in the US, the market will see explosive growth.
In-Stat/MDR predicts that:
-- The worldwide DTV set market in 2007 will reach 58 million units.
-- In the area of display technologies, the clean, thin-profile look of flat panel TVs is in demand from consumers who can afford it. New factories will be coming online in the next two years, which will increase the supply of Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) and plasma panels, thereby reducing their price.
-- The increase in demand for DTV tuner components will allow price reductions. In-Stat/MDR expects the bill of materials for an Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) tuner to reach $40 by 2007 and a Digital Video Broadcast Terrestrial (DVB-T) tuner to reach $35 in the same time frame. Ongoing integration of functions into fewer Integrated Circuits (ICs) will also be a large factor in lower prices.
One can expect more shipments of DTV sets with integrated tuners. This will end the life of products in the DTV monitor category. In addition, the launch of Freeview in the UK (quintupling the number of terrestrial TV channels available free to air) breathes new life into DTT. Other European countries are expected to go live with digital terrestrial TV in 2003, joining the UK, Finland, Germany, Spain, and Sweden. Digital terrestrial broadcasting will begin in Japan by the end of the year, joining the current digital broadcast satellite transmissions. This will encourage more Japanese consumers to buy digital rather than analog sets. DTV sets have also proven to be a popular item in South Korea and are growing in China.