Since first appearing on the market in the late 1920s, the television has inarguably altered the lifestyles of many. Originally geared toward the fabulously well-to-do, the TV has become more and more commonplace to the point where on global scale; more than 1.4 billion households have at least one of these sophisticated machines. That represents roughly 79 percent of all households in the world.According to a report by the International Telecommunications Union, “virtually all” of households in the developed world have television sets, while 69 percent of households in developing countries do as well.

Over the years, as all technologies do, the television has evolved dramatically. Moving from analog to digital over the past decade or so, the TV passed a milestone in 2012 when more than half of all of the machines in the world (55 percent) were within reach of a digital TV signal, a substantial increase from 2008 (30 percent).

These days, most television watchers pay for their services rather than getting them over-the-air. At the end of 2012, there were 728 million paid subscribers scattered across the globe. According to a survey from the International Telecommunications Union, 81 percent of households in first-world countries have digital television, whereas 42 percent of households have it in developing countries.

While the rise of over-the-top (OTT) providers continues to pervade the more financially lucrative regions of the world, the fact remains that televisions will remain a dominant technology on a global scale for the foreseeable future. It appears as though the amount of people who get their television from mobile devices will continue to increase, but for the time being, that group will remain a minority.