DTT is coming of age in Europe, according to data supplied by the European Audiovisual Observatory to the DG Communication of the EC.
Looking at the EU 27 nations plus Croatia and Turkey, it found that over 500 channels are already available on DTT platforms.
What is more, DTT rollout will have taken place in 23 EU countries by the end of this year. The data also showed that on average the percentage of public to private channels on DTT platforms was 25% v 75% (on all platforms, across all 29 markets, it was an even more pronounced 7% v 93%).
DTT platforms were also found to have a higher percentage of generalist, news, business and cultural channels, and those in smaller countries had a stronger reliance on international channels.
Significantly, the data also found that more than 200 new channels were launched in the 29 countries in 2008, bringing the total to 5.587.
A further 412 non-European channels were also available.
