It's a Hypercompetitive World After All

As any bruised and battered broadcast executive can testify, the global pay-TV market has become increasingly crowded. Brutally so. And they know it is likely to get worse.

A new report tries to quantify just how much worse, by forecasting that the number of "hypercompetitive" media markets across the world will grow by nearly 40 percent over five years.

The report, by SNL Kagan, defines a "hypercompetitive" market as one in which consumers can choose from four or more digital video platforms. That includes digital cable, digital fixed wireless, satellite, IPTV, and free or paid digital terrestrial television.

The field has become especially crowded since Verizon, Deutsche Telecom, and other big phone companies began to offer TV over their networks. Their services -- Verizon's is called FiOS -- have revolutionized broadcasting. "New players are coming in, and that has shaken up the market," Reneker says.

In Asia, for example, only eight countries currently have hypercompetitive TV markets. SNL Kagen predicts that will jump to 12 by 2013.

In Latin America, which has six countries with super competitive markets, the number will double, with the addition of Chile, Colombia, Panama, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru.

And Eastern Europe's media markets are set to have the highest number of available digital TV platforms, at 5.5 each, making them the world's most hypercompetitive.

Western Europe, by comparison, is pretty much maxed out with 15 countries with hypercompetitive markets. It will add only one by 2013. North America, another mature market, will remain stable.

The best news of all, for the TV industry and the people who analyze it? Plenty of future opportunities to use the word hypercompetitive.

by Sophia Banay