Australia - Digital TV - Digital Video Recorders

Synopsis

The term ‘personal recorder’ refers to the range of devices that allow for the recording of broadcasting content. Some synonyms include PVR and DVR. Their growth is relevant to the digital TV market because consumer entertainment goods including lower energy use liquid crystal display and light emitting diode flat screen TVs with inbuilt STBs have increased immensely over the last couple of years.

Personal video recorders recorded double-digit growth back in 2010 and were a major driver of digital TV adoption across Australia.

The subscription TV operators FOXTEL, AUSTAR provide DVRs, FetchTV has a PVR, while apps for smartphones and computers can also be used as a PVR. Meanwhile the Seven Network and the Hybrid TV owned TiVo brand still continue to offer the high-costing DVR through retail stores in 2012.

The rollout of the National Broadband Network will allow further DVR usage, as speeds and download restrictions are lifted from the Australia market. But whether the apps and other digital technologies now available gain the major market share or the propriety STB and DVR makers, still remains to be seen.

In this report we provide an update and analysis of the digital video recorder market as well as background information, and also provide some statistics and market estimates in tabular and easy-to-read chart formats.

Companies mentioned

Companies mentioned in this report include – FOXTEL, AUSTAR, Seven, TiVo, BigPond TV, Telstra.

Hot topics and technologies mentioned

Hot topics and technologies mentioned in this report include – Set-top boxes (STB), digital video recorders (DVR), personal video recorders (PVR), FTA TV, subscription TV National Broadband Network (NBN), smart TVs.

Table of Contents

• 1. Synopsis
• 2. Introduction
  • 2.1 Technical description
  • 2.2 Functional overview
  • 2.3 Home media centres
• 3. Subscriber statistics
  • 3.1 Overview of market
  • 3.2 Statistics
• 4. Market analysis
  • 4.1 PVR uptake – can it last beyond streaming
• 5. Key players and products
  • 5.1 Telstra T-Box
    • 5.1.1 Overview
    • 5.1.2 Subscriber uptake
    • 5.1.3 FOXTEL on T-Box
  • 5.2 Free-to-Air (FTA) DVRs
    • 5.2.1 Overview
    • 5.2.2 Seven’s ‘My TiVo’
  • 5.3 Pay TV DVRs
    • 5.3.1 FOXTEL’s iQ recorder
    • 5.3.2 AUSTAR MyStar
  • 5.4 Set-top Boxes (STB)
    • 5.4.1 Analysis of the proprietary STBs
    • 5.4.2 Houses need floor reinforcement to cope with the number of set-top boxes
    • 5.4.3 Hybrid STBs
    • 5.4.4 Digital TV STBs
  • 5.5 FOXTEL in Xbox deal
• 6. DVRs and advertising
  • 6.1 Overview
  • 6.2 Ad-skipping versus live TV
• 7. Related reports

• Table 1 – Media centre penetration forecasts – Australia – 2005; 2007; 2010; 2015
• Table 2 – Estimated DVR subscribers – total market – pay TV and FTA TV – 2006 - 2012
• Table 3 – Estimated DVR subscribers – by major provider – 2006 - 2012

• Chart 1 – Overview of estimated DVR subscribers by major provider – 2006 - 2012
• Chart 2 – Overview of market share of DVD subscribers by major operator – 2010 - 2011
• Chart 3 – Overview of FOXTEL iQ DVR subscribers and annual change – 2006 - 2012

• Exhibit 1 – TiVo background information