IPTV overtakes pay satellite TV in Western Europe

The number of homes paying for IPTV in Western Europe overtook pay satellite TV ones in 2015. According to the Digital TV Western Europe Forecasts report, IPTV subscriptions will climb by nearly 7 million (up by 27%) between 2015 and 2021. IPTV revenues will reach $5.77 billion in 2021 – up by $1.2 billion.

However, the number of homes paying for satellite TV will fall by 300,000 between 2015 and 2021 for the 18 countries covered in the report. This is due mainly to some operators, especially in Spain and Italy, converting their DTH subs to more lucrative bundles on their broadband networks. Satellite TV revenues will fall for every year from 2011 – and will decline by $1 billion between 2015 and 2021.

Western European pay TV is fast maturing, with penetration only forecast to grow from 56.8% at end-2015 to 59.5% in 2021. The number of pay TV subscribers will climb from 97.4 million in 2015 to 104.3 million in 2021.

So, pay TV subscriptions will only increase by 6.9 million (7.0%) between 2015 and 2021. However, the number of digital pay TV subs will increase by 19.0% (nearly 17 million) over the same period. Digital cable subs will increase by almost 10 million.

The 9.9 million analog cable homes remaining at end-2015 will be the hardest to convert to digital as many of these subscribers pay for very basic packages as part of their rent.

Simon Murray, Principal Analyst at Digital TV Research, said: “The remaining analog cable TV subs are the most obstinate. These homes have had several years to transfer to digital platforms – including those from their existing operators, but are still holding out. When conversion finally happens, these homes are more likely to convert to free-to-air platforms such as DTT or satellite than their predecessors.”

In fact, only seven (Finland, France, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Spain and the UK) of the 18 countries covered in the report had fully converted to digital by end-2015.

By 2021, pay TV penetration will range from nearly 100% in the Netherlands to 36% in Italy. Eight countries will exceed 90% pay TV penetration in 2021. However, pay TV penetration will fall in Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland – countries with a large number of legacy analog cable subs.

Despite the number of pay TV homes increasing, pay TV revenues will remain flat at around $31 billion. The UK ($7,217 million) will remain the most lucrative pay TV market. Regardless of having the most pay TV subs by some distance, Germany’s pay TV revenues will remain a lot lower than the UK – at $4,183 million by 2021. In fact, France and Italy will not be too far behind Germany, despite having far fewer pay TV subs.

What WhatsApp has done? Now FBI got no excuse to open a door.

   Yesterday, WhatsApp announced that they've completed a technological development that protects users' private communication: full end-to-end encryption. From now on when you and your contacts use the latest version of the app, every call you make, and every message, photo, video, file, and voice message you send, is end-to-end encrypted by default, including group chats.

The idea is simple: when you send a message, the only person who can read it is the person or group chat that you send that message to. No one can see inside that message. Not cyber criminals. Not hackers. Not oppressive regimes. Not even us. End-to-end encryption helps make communication via WhatsApp private – sort of like a face-to-face conversation.Here is a screenshot I had yesterday.

Today more than a billion people are using WhatsApp to stay in touch with their friends and family all over the world. And now, every single one of those people can talk freely and securely on WhatsApp.

How to Choose the Organic Foods?

1

Understand why organic foods should be an important part of your diet. Organic foods are grown with no or fewer chemical or hormonal additives in their growth cycle than conventionally grown produce and meat. This means that laws on organic labeling in many places ban the use of a wide array of pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, hormone treatments, antibiotics etc. on any produce or meat destined to carry an organic certification.

2 Choose the crucial dozen organic foods. The dozen foods listed next are considered to be the foods most vulnerable to the addition of too many pesticides, growth hormones, antibiotics etc. This top dozen lists food items where home washing and cooking practices are unlikely to result in reduction of the chemical or hormonal residues:

• Beef, chicken and pork
• Dairy products: Milk, cheese and butter
• Strawberries, raspberries and cherries
• Bananas
• Apples and pears
• Tomatoes
• Spinach and salad greens
• Coffee
• Potatoes
• Stone fruits: Peaches, nectarines and apricots
• Grapes
• Celery
• Peppers (capsicums), green and red

3

Shop for seasonal foods. Seasonally available produce is the budget-conscious shopper's prize. Produce in season is always value for money because it is plentiful and this includes organic produce. In addition, seasonal food often travels less distance as it is grown locally and therefore will keep in better condition (more nutrients), for longer. From a comfort perspective, there is something very calming and traditional about eating the way our ancestors have for centuries; you become attuned to the cycle of the seasons. An added bonus: You are less inclined to overfill your fridge with food that ends up going unnoticed, which saves you money.

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   Eat in moderation. The statistics on obesity continue to rise. We do not need huge quantities of food; too much food makes our bodies sick rather than healthy and happy. While eating in moderation means eating less food overall, it most certainly doesnot mean going without and feeling hungry. Change to eating more energy-sustaining foods, such as organic grains and pulses to bulk out your diet. You will not need to eat as much of these foods, as unlike processed foods, you will feel full faster and for longer. Your budget will go further simply through choosing prime quality organic foods in smaller amounts. Most importantly, eating in moderation will result in less intake of chemical and hormonal residues and that can only be a good outcome for everyone.
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   Eat variety. Variety means including all those vegetables and not just living off potatoes. The more that you vary your diet within seasonal constraints, there is a higher likelihood that you will have less exposure to a build-up of one type of chemical residues. Variety also means an interesting and fulfilling diet, as well as a greater likelihood that you will get all the nutrients, anti-oxidants and fiber that you need to keep healthy.
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   Be realistic. Most nutritionists would still prefer that you eat fruit and vegetables whether they are organic or conventional in origin in preference to highly processed foods. Use the list set out in step 2 to pick the organic foods and then purchase conventional foods for the remainder if you have a tight budget. Taking the simple step of choosing some organics to include in your diet is an important one of taking control over what is potentially affecting your health; whilst you will still be surrounded by the chemical load of our industrial age, you are taking positive action to help yourself and to encourage organic growers at the same time.
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