Linear programming accounted for 89.5% of global audiovisual services revenues, which totaled €409.7 billion, in 2015.
This, according to Idate’s DigiWorld Yearbook 2016, represented a respectable 2.5% increase on the previous year, with the market as a whole growing by 3.1%. Meanwhile, VOD was the fastest growing segment (26.5%) but still accounted for only 6% of the market in 2015.
Idate notes that despite its good performance in 2015, linear TV experienced weaker growth than in previous years. This averaged 3.3% per annum between 2012 and 2015. Moreover, although still steady, VOD market growth is decreasing.
Idate forecasts that these trends will continue, with the TV sector as a whole growing annually by 3% between 2016 and 2020. Both linear (2.2%) and VOD (15.7%) will see slower rates of growth and at the same time hard copy sales and rentals will continue to decline (-10.2%).
Significantly, while cable remains the main provider of TV programming (36.3% of homes), DTH is making real strides (28.5%) at the expense of terrestrial TV (27.4%). IPTV (7.7%), reported – at 11.8% – had the highest rate of growth in 2015.