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Making Sense of the Muddled In-Home Entertainment Market

The global access and entertainment services marketplace continues its pace of dramatic change, as broadband services have achieved new levels of penetration and speed worldwide.

Emerging markets in Latin America, Eastern Europe and Asia are experiencing rapid growth, as many homes obtain high-speed broadband services for the first time. While penetration growth has slowed in mature markets in North America, Western Europe, and Asia, competition is driving an industry push to ever-faster service tiers, including gigabit-speed services.

Pay TV is experiencing a similar pattern in global growth -- fast-paced adoption in emerging markets and heightened competition in developed markets. Companies in this industry are also struggling with the economics of TV and video services. Content producers face growing costs and are seeking higher licensing fees and international distribution to compensate for these operational expenses. These content costs are increasing more rapidly than pay-TV providers can increase their service fees, resulting in new standoffs, difficult decisions, and compromises.

From the article "Making Sense of the Muddled In-Home Entertainment Market" by Brett Sappington, Barbara Kraus, and Glenn Hower.

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