SNL Kagan Global HDTV Study.

“Global High Definition Television Trends,” a new study from SNL Kagan, reports that pay-TV operators are increasingly using HDTV service to distinguish themselves in competitive markets. HD programming is shaping multichannel economics around the world, delivering competitive advantages and significant new revenue streams.

“Global High Definition Television Trends” examines multichannel markets in these HDTV countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the United Kingdom and the United States. The study includes overviews and operator profiles for each multichannel platform.

The United States dominates the pay-HDTV market with 6 million homes accessing HDTV via cable, satellite or IPTV subscriptions by year-end 2007. When free HDTV programming is added to the equation, Japan boasts the largest HDTV base with 9.2 million households by the end of this year. But Japan’s market lead will be a short-lived; SNL Kagan forecasts that the U.S. will take the top slot by year-end 2008 with 6 million additional homes adopting HD.

Although the U.S. and Japan are market leaders by volume, Canada and France lead the world in HDTV penetration of pay-TV households. SNL Kagan’s analysis shows that both countries will hold this penetration advantage for the foreseeable future.

“As competition between cable, satellite and IPTV intensifies, HD programming becomes increasingly important,” said SNL Kagan senior analyst Ben Reneker. “At this point, operators are looking for any possible means to get an edge on the competition. In addition to providing a new revenue stream, a strong HDTV lineup offers a powerful bragging right.”

SNL Kagan estimates that the 10 top HDTV markets will generate aggregate HDTV video service revenues in excess of $1 billion in 2007, $11 billion by 2014, and $12 billion by 2016.