New Zealand - Broadcasting Market - FTA, Pay TV, Digital TV and Radio - Insights and Statistics

Synopsis

The FTA and the pay TV sectors are adapting to the growing trend among consumers to shift from linear TV to viewing content online. The trend has become stronger during the last two years as telecom infrastructure has improved, allowing a greater proportion of consumers to take advantage of content from w wide range of video sites, as well as catch-up services from broadcasters. The broadcasting and digital media industries are having to keep up with these changes in the market place.

Pay TV penetration in New Zealand is around 50%. The introduction of the cut-price monthly subscription model, Igloo, in late 2012 increased household penetration but the real threat is that this model will cannibalise the existing user base as customers churn to cheaper monthly rates. As the UFB consumer base eventually increases other competitive threats by other media models will see uptake of other media based subscription services, lowering the viability of the current model.

The first regional switch from analogue to digital TV broadcasting was completed in September 2012, with all other regions having reached ASO by December 2013. The process freed up considerable spectrum (digital dividend spectrum) in the 800MHz band which has been repurposed for mobile broadband use. To this end spectrum was sold to Vodafone, 2degrees and Spark in mid-2014. The economic effect to the country is in the order of $1 billion or more within a 5-10 year time frame.

This report provides a comprehensive overview of the FTA, Pay TV and Digital TV markets in New Zealand including statistics and forecasts. IPTV, Digital Media and Mobile TV are covered in a separate report: New Zealand - Digital Economy and Digital Media.

Key developments:

Pay TV; subscriber churn; community TV; STV; spectrum; digital TV; digital switchover completed; broadcasting; VoD; TVNZ financial data updates, recent market developments.

Companied covered in this report include:

Sky, Telecom, Vodafone, Prime Television, MediaWorks, TVNZ, TiVo, Kordia, TVWorks, New Zealand Racing Board, Quickflix, Radio New Zealand, Freeview, Igloo, Maori TV