Remote monitoring market exceeds $29 billion in 2011

WELLINGBOROUGH, England—The world market for remote monitoring services was worth more than $29 billion in 2011, equivalent to $2.4 billion in recurring monthly revenue over the course of the year, according to a new report by IMS Research.

IMS estimated that 54 million customers used remote services, including alarm monitoring, video monitoring, physical access control, fire detection and PERS (Personal Emergency Response Services).

The U.S. market accounted for about 45 percent of worldwide revenues, anchored by strong residential and commercial demand for alarm monitoring. Other notable regional markets include Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Japan, South Korea, China and Australia.

“The penetration of remote monitoring services varies significantly between different countries and regions,” said Niall Jenkins, IMS Research analyst and author of “The World Market for Remote Monitoring Service,” 2012 edition. “For example, the U.S. residential alarm monitoring market has a penetration of between 20 and 25 percent of all residential buildings, while the residential market in Germany was estimated to be less than 200,000 accounts.”

Regional differences are based on a number of social and economic factors, Jenkins said, with the decision to remotely monitor a building driven by the perception of crime, comparative wealth, service pricing and the isolation of a location.

“In less developed countries, the lower cost of manned guarding can also act to limit [remote monitoring],” he said. “In extreme examples, a lack of trust in the police force can drive customers to include manned guard response in their service agreement, hence increasing the RMR generated on the account.”