in the past five years, says Orsmond, as the number of “live” and
infomercial home shopping channels has also increased markedly. In fact, recent research by Screen Digest confirms that before
2003, the growth in TV channels was relatively flat. “This has
been followed by a sustained boom,” says Orsmond, “the likes of
which had not been seen since the mid-1990s, when digital TV
services first launched in Europe.”
According to Orsmond, more than 300 new TV channels
were launched in 2005, with the proliferation continuing into
2008. The largest quantity of spot and infomercial avails are in
the U.K. (population 60 million) due to its high number of satellite and cable TV channels.
Breaking the numbers down by market, Britain currently has
more than 416 TV channels aimed specifically at U.K. viewers,
and, of these, 47 are home shopping channels (compare this to
Germany’s eight home shopping channels). The next largest TV
market is France with a total of 246 TV channels (population 64
million), followed by Italy with 206 TV channels (population 59
million), Spain with 108 TV channels (population 45 million)
and Germany with 93 TV channels (population 82 million).
According to Chacón, the digitalization of European airwaves is creating more opportunities for the region’s DRTV industry. In some cases, for example, new home shopping channels
and additional media avails are appearing. In terms of content,
84% of the U.K.’s 25. 4 Million Homes Now
Receive Digital TV
Pay Satellite:
31.8%
Cable: 13.4%
ADSL: 0.2%
Analogue
Terrestrial: 15.0%
Digital
Terrestrial: 35.9%
Source: Ofcom “Digital Television Update 2Q 2007” (main set access only)
Chacón says he’s seeing more European home shopping, infomercial and spot productions, whereas, years ago, most of the
content was sublicensed from American marketers.
“We’re also seeing a great deal of experimentation of the
traditional home shopping formats,” says Chacón, who points
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