IPTV Gathering Steam: Almost 10 Million Television-Over-Broadband Subscribers Worldwide

WASHINGTON — A new report from Telecommunications Management Group, Inc. (TMG), “IPTV: The Killer Broadband Application,” forecasts that there will be nearly 60 million Internet Protocol television (IPTV) subscribers worldwide by the end of 2010. IPTV — providing video services over managed IP networks to consumers’ televisions — has been doubling each year since its commercial introduction in 2002. There were 9.9 million IPTV subscribers around the world at the end of 2007, more than double the previous year, and TMG projects more than a 500 percent increase over the next three years. According to Michael Minges, TMG Senior Market Analyst and lead author of the report, “IPTV is revolutionizing the television market by introducing greater competition and providing consumers with a plethora of customizable content, viewable any time.”

Other points of interest in the report include the finding that IPTV has succeeded in countries with relatively low pay television penetration but high broadband penetration. This is characteristic of some countries in Europe, which has the largest number of IPTV subscribers and where there are few regulatory obstacles, nationwide telecommunications operators and widely available broadband networks.

France Telecom is the largest IPTV operator in the world with 1.1 million subscribers at the end of 2007, followed by Verizon’s FiOS television service in the United States. With over 50 percent of its broadband subscribers using its “now” broadband TV service, Hong Kong’s PCCW has the most successful overall uptake.

IPTV is not limited to high-income economies. China and India have launched IPTV, as have several countries in Africa. TMG forecasts that China and the United States will be the world’s largest IPTV markets by 2010.

The report is a rich resource for operators, manufacturers, regulators, policymakers, researchers and others. In addition to annual historical data and a 2010 subscriber forecast for more than 40 countries that had IPTV at the beginning of 2008, the report includes penetration rates for television households, pay television households, broadband subscribers and broadband households. The report also contains a listing of IPTV providers and pricing around the world.