IPTV Growth Doubles in North America in 2008

Last quarter growth — at 19% — is the world’s largest

SAN JOSE, CAlif. — The Broadband Forum today announced the latest IPTV and broadband statistics, showing that the North American IPTV market has more than doubled in size in 2008 — with growth of 113 percent despite the global economic downturn.

The report, prepared for the Forum by industry analysts Point Topic (GBS database at http://point-topic.com/home/gbs/), also showed a very healthy 19 percent growth of IPTV inside the last quarter, well ahead of other IPTV-focused regions South and East Asia and Latin America, whose last quarter growth both showed 12 percent.

The IPTV figures — announced by the Broadband Forum at today’s opening day of IPTV World Forum in London — come at the same time as world broadband statistics for 2008 show a 62.6 million line growth to 410.9 million lines. While growth slowed late in the year generally, compared to the same quarter in 2007, several countries showed improved performance in the third quarter of 2008, including France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Singapore and The Philippines.

IPTV global subscriber totals have now reached 21.7 million, which is an increase of 63 percent on the end of 2007 figures.

IPTV subscribers per region

Region                      2007 Q4      2008 Q4
------                   ----------   ----------
Western Europe            7,045,860   10,388,000
North America             1,774,671    3,835,544
South & East Asia         1,840,000    3,615,000
Asia-Pacific              2,199,828    3,082,182
Eastern Europe              465,223      884,466
Latin America                 8,991       21,495
Middle East & Africa         10,000       10,000
                         ----------   ----------
  Global Total           13,344,573   21,836,687

Source: Data provided for the Broadband Forum by Point Topic

“During 2008, IPTV operators showed that TV over IP could be deployed on a large scale,” said John Bonsell, a Senior Analyst with Point Topic. “That has been the case particularly in the USA.”

As expected, due to the global economic situation, broadband growth slowed, however all countries experienced overall growth during the last year.

Top ten broadband countries

                   2007 Q4        2008 Q4
                ----------     ----------
China           66,564,400     83,366,000
USA             69,964,758     79,074,123
Japan           28,425,700     30,325,900
Germany         19,897,616     23,425,150
France          15,555,068     17,503,518
UK              15,728,900     17,392,800
South Korea     14,709,998     15,474,931
Italy           10,860,650     12,170,080
Brazil           7,477,400      9,633,300
Canada           8,658,689      9,386,846

Source: Data provided for the Broadband Forum by Point Topic

Regionally, over the last quarter, Latin America (7.55 percent), Eastern Europe (6.22 percent) and Middle East and Africa (4.76 percent) were the best percentage growth performers, although all regions continued to report growth of some extent.

Region broadband view and growth

                             2008 Q3        2008 Q4
Region                         Total          Total      Growth
------                   -----------    -----------      ------
Western Europe           102,489,320    105,699,114       3.13%
South and East Asia       90,222,776     93,496,395       3.63%
North America             86,185,061     88,460,969       2.64%
Asia-Pacific              61,940,241     63,285,165       2.17%
Latin America             24,191,462     26,018,927       7.55%
Eastern Europe            20,671,116     21,956,239       6.22%
Middle East and Africa    11,419,696     11,962,810       4.76%

Source: Data provided for the Broadband Forum by Point Topic

In terms of technology, DSL continues to be the most popular broadband access technology, although fiber has grown twice as fast as either cable or DSL in the 12 months to Q4 2008. This should continue, given the number of new implementations and consumer and business demand for higher speeds. Value-added services such as IPTV are also proving to be strong drivers for FTTx uptake and have driven this technology through the 50 million mark worldwide.

“This report shows that despite the economic situation the world is facing, the demand for both broadband and IPTV continues to expand,” said George Dobrowski, Chairman and President of the Broadband Forum.

“The Forum continues to drive broadband innovation, and with the recent release of BroadbandSuite 3.0, which provides new IPTV management and fibre integration tools, we continue to ensure that the industry has all the tools and specifications it needs to optimise networks and to capture the full potential of broadband worldwide.”