Internet TV subscribers to rise by over 50 percent in 2009

EL SEGUNDO, USA: The global IPTV market withstood the worst of the worldwide economic storm during the last six months, putting it on track to achieve more than 50 percent subscriber growth in 2009, according to iSuppli Corp.

In the fourth quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009, IPTV added 2.5 million and 2.3 million subscribers worldwide, respectively. Global IPTV subscribers are set to rise to 33.3 million subscribers at the end of 2009, up 56 percent from 21.3 million in 2008.

The figure presents iSuppli’s global IPTV subscriber forecast for the period of 2006 through 2013.Source: iSuppli, USA

“With the economy in the dumps and revenue growth from voice services having evaporated, global telcos are turning to IPTV to drive their growth,” said Lee Ratliff, senior analyst for broadband and digital home at iSuppli. “The good news is that this strategy is paying off, with IPTV subscribers and revenue rising.”

In 2010, IPTV subscribers will rise another 56 percent to reach 52 million. By 2013, the number of subscribers will double, reaching 115.6 million.

“With the huge numbers of subscribers signing on during the next five years, telcos are rapidly gearing up for IPTV and triple-play services, as well as working on how they can make them more attractive to current and future subscribers,” Ratliff added.

IPTV revenue is growing even faster than subscribers thanks to increasing ARPU. Revenues are expected to increase to $58.2 billion by 2013, with a CAGR of 44.4 percent from just $9.3 billion in 2008.

Regional growth untapped
At the end of the first quarter of 2009, nearly half of global IPTV subscribers, or 49 percent, were located in Europe.

Other regions, including North America and Asia/Pacific, are relatively far along in their IPTV deployment, but the subscriber growth opportunity is huge because these regions—including Europe—have an IPTV penetration of the telco broadband subscriber base of less than 15 percent.

This means there are ample opportunities for telcos to expand their business for the next five years and beyond.

But the next great IPTV frontier may be in the emerging markets of Eastern Europe, India, Russia and Latin America, where IPTV’s penetration of the telco broadband subscriber base is less than 1 percent. These regions will be slower to ramp up their subscribers due to limited broadband infrastructures and, in some case, regulatory issues.

64mn IPTV subscribers by end of 2012

DUBLIN, IRELAND: Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "The Future of Triple-Play: Growth Opportunities, Key Challenges and Competitive Strategies" report to its offering.

Cable operations and fixed-line telecoms operators continue their battle over a superior share in the triple-play arena. However, mobile operators have shown their interest in seizing a piece of the market while satellite TV providers are also complementing their core services with fixed-line offerings.

The future of pure-play providers appears limited, as the credit crunch places further pressure on consumers to seek the most cost effective way of obtaining the services they need.

'The Future of Triple-Play: Growth opportunities, key challenges and competitive strategies' is a report that examines the market opportunities and challenges for triple-play services.

The report analyzes the market conditions that have driven the deployment of triple-play services, and the strategies employed by leading service providers. It identifies the challenges faced by companies, and also provides recommendations into how to best counter competitive threats, extend service portfolios, and boost revenue potential in this rapidly evolving market.

Key findings:
* The popularity of mobile telephony is expected to continue to rise over the next four years. There will be over 5.6 billion mobile connections worldwide by the end of 2013, a 68 percent increase over 2007.

* Mobile broadband will be a substitute for fixed-line services in markets where fixed-line infrastructure has not been widely deployed. There will be an estimated 258 million mobile broadband notebook users in 2014, with consumers accounting for almost 200 million of these connections.

* It is forecast that there will be 64 million IPTV subscribers by the end of 2012, an almost six fold increase over 2007 levels.

* The average consumer is not motivated by new technological offerings. Price is much more important to most than the availability of advanced services such as VOD, DVRs and high definition programming.