ZTE ranked no. 1 in IPTV middleware, VOD and STBs

Tuesday, March 4th, 2014
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ZTE becomes global leader in IPTV middleware, video on demand and set top box categories

SHENZHEN, China — ZTE Corporation (“ZTE”) (H share stock code: 0763.HK / A share stock code: 000063.SZ), a publicly-listed global provider of telecommunications equipment, network solutions and mobile devices has been ranked number one globally in three major market segments: middleware, video-on-demand (VOD), and set-top boxes (STB) by the IPTV Global Market Leader Report (year end 2013 edition) issued by Multimedia Research Group (MRG). ZTE reached the top spot in the middleware segment which has been held by Microsoft’s Mediaroom (now Ericsson) for the last five years.

The report analysed 955 internet protocol television (IPTV) service providers across the world. It also researched the six key IPTV products: access systems, head-end, VOD, STB, middleware and content protection markets across eight regions (North America, Latin America, Caribbean, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific and Middle East and Africa) to evaluate the market performance of IPTV equipment and software providers based on the quantity of active users of each product (except for head-end systems).

The report highlights that VOD is one of the most competitive of the six market segments, with 14 out of the 15 VOD companies each reporting over one million subscribers. ZTE is now the VOD leader with 20.6 percent global market share, while the former market leader Microsoft is now in the second position with 16.7 percent.

ZTE also displaced Microsoft’s Mediaroom from the top spot in the middleware segment with 22.7 percent market share. The IPTV STB segment is the most aggressive with 27 vendors competing in this space, and ZTE dominating with 22.9 percent market share.

Over the last ten years ZTE has been developing cutting-edge broadband video solutions, including IPTV, over the top (OTT), hybrid TV, multi-screen, content delivery network (CDN), caching, and value-added services. ZTE’s IPTV operator customers include China Telecom, VNPT, Indonesia Telkom, Beltelecom, M-Tel in Bulgaria, Cincinnati Bell Telecom and France Telecoms in Mauritius. By the end of 2013, ZTE had successfully launched 48 commercial IPTV projects with 17.3 million subscribers and capacity for 26.5 million. Moreover, the world’s-largest H.264 IPTV network was built by ZTE for Jiangsu Telecom (a branch of China Telecom). The company’s EyeWill TV solution is the only platform that integrates broadband IPTV, web TV, and mobile TV.

“Since the emergence of IPTV ZTE has dedicated itself to R&D and market development in this field. The MRG MLR report is a key milestone highlighting ZTE as a global leader,” said Mr. Frank Fang, ZTE Vice President. “With the advent of the LTE era and fibre deployment, ZTE will continue to deliver IPTV, OTT, mobile video, and other innovative solutions and business models to help TV operators’ customers to enjoy video services anytime and anywhere.”

Besides providing OTT equipment and solutions, ZTE will also become an OTT service provider in collaboration with telecom operators. It can deliver all three models: the pure OTT model dominated by a content provider, the IPTV and OTT model via collaboration between ZTE and telecom operators, and the digital video broadcasting (DVB) and OTT model via collaboration between ZTE and TV broadcast operators.