DVRs will be found in over 130 million homes worldwide by the end of 2010, according to a new report from the Strategy Analytics Connected Home Devices service. Cable, satellite and other digital TV providers had installed 17.4 million DVRs globally by the end of 2005.
Sales of DVRs should accelerate to hit a level of 40 million units a year in 2010, according to the report “Digital Video Recorders: Demand Surges as Mass Market Era Dawns.”
The U.S. and Europe are expected to lead the global transition toward user-controlled TV. DVRs can now be found in 12 percent of US homes; Strategy Analytics predicts more than half of U.S. consumers will have access to a DVR by 2010.
The market has been slower to take off in Europe, but even in Europe, 25 percent of homes will have DVRs by 2010, up from only 2 percent in 2005.
According to Peter King, director of the firm’s Connected Home Devices service, “To remain competitive, manufacturers and service providers must now make the transition to IP-enabled DVR which will support multi-room television, remote recording capabilities, and access to personal content on PCs such as photos and music.”
The report also finds that global sales of DVRs more than doubled in 2005, rising to 9.7 million units from 4.4 million the previous year, and that global sales of IP-enabled DVRs, which were 2.8 million units in 2005, are forecast to grow to 20.4 million units by 2010.