Global 3D TV Forecasts Summary

Forecasting for 53 countries, Informa concludes that North America will remain by far the
largest region for 3D TV in the near future- taking 60% of the end-2010 active total.
However, this proportion will fall to 41% by end-2015 as Western Europe and some Asia
Pacific countries gather steam. 3D TV will be far from mature by end-2015, with plenty of
growth likely beyond the forecast period.
The US will continue to be the dominant active 3D TV territory, recording 8.7 million active
3D TV households by end-2015. Japan (2.0 million), the UK (1.6 million) and Korea (1.5
million) will follow. 3D TV will receive government support in countries with a large set
manufacturing base.
The proportion of homes actually watching 3D TV programming is very low. By end-2015,
the global proportion is forecast to reach 1.6%. However, this proportion will be as high as
7% in the US.
Digital cable will account for 47% of the active 3D TV households by 2015, up from 38% at
end-2010. This translates to 10.4 million 3D cable households at end-2015 (2.7% of digital
cable homes), up from 38,000 at end-2010. The US will provide 4.7 million of the 2015 total,
followed by Japan (1.0 million) and Korea (1.0 million).
3D TV penetration will be higher in pay DTH homes (3.7% by 2015) than for other
platforms. DTH operators have generally been more active in promoting 3D TV than the
other platforms. This is due principally to their need to differentiate themselves from the
other platforms with advanced TV services to counter the triple-play bundles and true VOD
offered by cable and IPTV operators. Assuming sufficient transponder availability, DTH is
also less capacity-restricted than most cable and IPTV operators. 3D TV via DTH has also
benefitted from strong support from such satellite owners as Eutelsat and Astra.
The US will contribute 2.9 million of the global active 3D TV DTH total of 6.7 million by
end-2015. The UK will be second with 892,000, followed by France (445,000) and Japan
(291,000).
IPTV will be some way behind cable and DTH in its active 3D TV household numbers, with
a forecast 3.0 million by end-2015. The US will provide 766,000 of this total, followed by
France (426,000) and Japan (418,000).
Take-up of 3D TV on DTT will be slower than for the pay TV platforms, partly due to the
lack of capacity but also because DTT homes are considered less likely to want to pay for the
extra equipment and programming.
However, Informa Telecoms & Media forecasts 2.1 million active 3D TV DTT households
by end-2015. More than half of this total will be in Western Europe, though the US will be
the largest single country with 383,000 homes. Italy (296,000) will be in second place,
followed by Spain (265,000), France (260,000) and Japan (259,000).