Palo Alto, Calif. — November 11, 2005 — The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), an independent U.S. government agency, mandates to digitize broadcast signals has opened up major opportunities for switcher vendors in North America. With the global economy stabilizing and advertising revenues on the rise, broadcasters and cable providers are investing in switchers to enable both simultaneous standard (SD) and high definition (HD) digital content, thereby boosting the broadcast switcher market worldwide.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, (www.it.frost.com) World Broadcast Switcher Market, reveals that revenues in this industry totaled nearly $400 million in 2004 and can reach close to the billion-dollar mark in 2011.

If you are interested in a virtual brochure, which provides manufacturers, end users, and other industry participants an overview of the latest analysis of the World Broadcast Switcher Market, then send an e-mail to Mireya Castilla, Corporate Communications, at mireya.castilla@frost.com with your full name, company name, title, telephone number, fax number, e-mail address, city, state and country. Upon receipt of the above information, an overview will be sent to you by e-mail.

“The move toward digital transformation of the broadcast space as well as HD has been for a long time focused on North America because of the FCC mandate,” says Frost & Sullivan Program Leader Mukul Krishna. “Nevertheless, the shift to digital in the area is slow due to the need for tremendous investments in infrastructure in order to comply with the FCC mandate and the resultant lobbying to push back the deadline for implementing the mandate.”

Despite this, the pace of adoption of switchers is gathering speed as prices fall for digital media technologies. Enterprises are realizing the strong benefits of employing HD, including easy access to digitally stored video assets, and reduced time required for broadcasting as well as massive savings on storage and maintenance. As a result, the return on investment (ROI) from digital video technology deployment is bolstering the broadcast switcher market.

“There is a rise in broadcast switcher sales internationally, as the Soccer World Cup in Europe in 2006 and the Olympics in China in 2008 are generating a greater demand from consumers for broadcast in HD,” notes Krishna. “Vendors need greater resources to utilize these opportunities in a global environment.”

Compared to Europe and North America, Asia is expects to have the most robust growth rates for broadcast switcher sales. This is largely attributed to the well performing economies in emerging markets such as China and India that are gearing up their digital and HD transmission capabilities. Europe follows Asia in terms of growth rates for the same period.

The broadcasting industry generally does not suffer from bandwidth restrictions and does not have to deal with bandwidth problems. The availability of ample bandwidth, the increased flexibility, and speed of production provides incentive to customers to deploy digital video technology.

Moreoever, new video compression techniques such as moving pictures experts group (MPEG) enhance the digital viewing experience, thereby further bolstering the demand for digital media. This, in turn, has enhanced broadcast switcher sales worldwide.

Since broadcasters, the world over are concerned with the dependability of digital media enabling technologies, switcher vendors have to constantly demonstrate the reliability of their solution by providing data security. They also have to meet the fierce competition in the market by ensuring significant product value at a competitive price without lowering profit margins. Toward this end, vendors have to increase sales by utilizing customer preferences for smaller switchers capable of handling both SD and HD.

World Broadcast Switcher Market is part of the Digital Media subscription. It provides an overview of the various segments in the market including the routing switcher, the production switcher, and the master switcher. Executive summaries and analyst interviews are available to the press.

Frost & Sullivan, a global growth consulting company, has been partnering with clients to support the development of innovative strategies for more than 40 years. The company's industry expertise integrates growth consulting, growth partnership services, and corporate management training to identify and develop opportunities. Frost & Sullivan serves an extensive clientele that includes Global 1000 companies, emerging companies, and the investment community by providing comprehensive industry coverage that reflects a unique global perspective and combines ongoing analysis of markets, technologies, econometrics, and demographics. For more information, visit www.frost.com.

World Broadcast Switcher Market
F375
Contact:
Mireya Castilla
Corporate Communications – North America
P: 210.247.3830
F: 210.348.1003
E: mireya.castilla@frost.com

Janina Hillgrub
Corporate Communications – Europe
P: +49 (0) 69 77 0 33 11
F: +49 (0) 69 23 45 66
E: janina.hillgrub@frost.com

Sarah Lourdes
Corporate Communications – Asia Pacific
P: +603 6204 5878
F: +603 6201 7402
E: sarah.lourdes@frost.com

www.frost.com

Keywords in this release: broadcast switcher, Federal Communications Commission, FCC, North America, simultaneous standard, SD, high definition, HD, digital media, return on investment, ROI, enterprise, 2006 Soccer World Cup, 2008 Olympics, Europe, Asia, China, India, moving pictures experts group, MPEG