IPTV Deployments More Than Double In a Year as Broadband Continues to Achieve Strong Growth

North America continues to dominate global broadband market with 16% of world subscribers
Broadband Reaches 313 Million Subscribers

BERLIN — The DSL Forum [Broadband Forum] today announced new broadband and IPTV statistics at the Broadband World Forum Europe in Berlin. The statistics, prepared for the DSL Forum by industry analyst Point Topic, show that the number of people using IPTV services increased by 179 per cent in the 12 months to 30 June 2007. On the broadband access side, DSL continues to dominate with almost 66 per cent of subscribers using this technology.

Over eight million people are now connected to IPTV services. Europe added over three million subscribers in the 12 months to 30 June 2007, making it the strongest market both in terms of growth (231 per cent in 12 months) and total subscriber numbers (almost five million by 30 June 2007).

IPTV subscriber growth worldwide, first half year 2005, 2006 and 2007

    Region               H1 2005         H1 2006          H1 2007
    Europe               521,000        1,505,000        4,984,000
    Asia Pacific         612,000          987,000        2,176,000
    Americas             267,000          409,000        1,069,000
    Other users           70,000           50,000                0(1)
    Total Worldwide    1,470,000        2,950,000        8,229,000
    Source: Data provided for the DSL Forum by Point Topic

“Top markets like France (2,550,000 customers) and Hong Kong (938,000 customers) show that IPTV can be deployed rapidly to large numbers of subscribers, if the market conditions are right,” said Point Topic Senior Analyst John Bosnell. “On the demand side, competitive and clear bundle pricing and content deals will help to attract customers to IPTV services, while on the supply side, making IPTV easier to install and develop will help to deliver IPTV services to a wider subscriber base.”

Bosnell continues, “Developing and agreeing standards will help to simplify the delivery process and drive higher take-up in other markets too.”

IPTV is an important focus for the DSL Forum: the Forum’s BroadbandSuite focuses on areas critical to the successful deployment of IPTV services and current work addresses transport improvements around VDSL2, policy control framework and network performance improvements, as well as home networking optimisation, including IPTV remote management and Set Top Box (STB) initiation advancements.

DSL continues to dominate Broadband Growth

DSL remains the most popular access technology, with over 200 million of the world’s 313 million broadband subscribers connecting via DSL. The global market share of broadband technologies remains largely unchanged from December 2006, with almost 22 per cent of subscribers using cable, and just over 10 per cent using FTTx.

              Key broadband access technologies at 30 June 2007

            Snapshot of Regional Broadband Growth to 30 June 2007
       Region                   Population              Households
    Western Europe              398,310,547            165,697,652
    North America               330,619,497            127,003,000
    South and East Asia       2,664,913,577            635,489,000
    Asia-Pacific                646,062,076            184,400,400
    Latin America               473,693,999            123,582,000
    Eastern Europe              313,774,369            115,125,202
    Middle East and Africa      413,055,261             80,795,000
    Other                       501,220,834            132,324,400


                                         2006Q2                  2007Q2
    Region                          Total      %HH           Total       %HH
    Western Europe               67,461,875  40.71 %     86,531,238    52.22 %
    North America                58,732,969  46.25 %     71,623,711    56.40 %
    South and East Asia          48,874,874   7.69 %     64,985,787    10.23 %
    Asia-Pacific                 50,267,391  27.26 %     54,316,955    29.46 %
    Latin America                10,775,964   8.72 %     15,642,526    12.66 %
    Eastern Europe                8,242,896   7.16 %     13,114,948    11.39 %
    Middle East and Africa        4,873,442   6.03 %      7,427,406     9.19 %
    Other                             3,700   0.00 %         10,000     0.01 %
    Source: Data provided for the DSL Forum by Point Topic

Western Europe continues to have the most broadband users, with 72 million of the 86 million broadband subscribers using DSL. The Eastern Europe DSL market, while small (less than 14 million), is the region with the strongest growth (over 60 per cent in the 12 months to 30 June 2007). The USA has the most broadband subscribers (over 63 million), but China tops the DSL subscriber list with over 44 million of its 59 million broadband users connected via DSL. 15 countries now have over three million DSL subscribers, and 29 have over one million subscribers, with Portugal passing the one million mark in the second quarter of 2007.

A breakdown of broadband access technologies in the top 10 countries by number
                   of broadband subscribers at 30 June 2007

                  Q2 2006                     Q2 2007
     Country       Total       DSL          FTTx     Cable Modem    Wireless
       USA      51,571,483  27,615,996   1,743,620   32,951,100    1,087,600
      China     45,061,000  44,757,000  14,154,040      620,000
      Japan     27,175,800  13,788,000   9,682,000    3,649,100      132,100
     Germany    12,474,366  16,893,700      35,150      655,338       70,600
       UK       11,631,608  11,282,088       1,400    3,201,900       35,600
      South
       Korea    12,770,911   4,878,857   4,457,914    5,103,804        3,498
     France     11,078,248  13,550,000      30,600      690,000
      Italy      7,856,917   9,577,000     270,000                   105,000
     Canada      7,151,486   3,903,683                4,272,872
      Spain      5,847,244   5,898,900       5,701    1,560,371


     Country             Total            Growth
       USA            63,408,156          22.95 %
      China           59,531,040          32.11 %
      Japan           27,251,200           0.28 %
     Germany          17,654,788          41.53 %
       UK             14,520,988          24.84 %
    South Korea       14,444,073          13.10 %
      France          14,270,600          28.82 %
      Italy            9,957,650          26.74 %
      Canada           8,176,555          14.33 %
      Spain            7,464,972          27.67 %
    Source: Data provided for the DSL Forum by Point Topic

“Today’s figures highlight that services such as IPTV, which have held the promise of increased revenues and reduced subscriber churn for a number of years, are finally becoming a reality for millions of people,” said Robin Mersh, chief operating officer at the DSL Forum.

“The figures also illustrate that DSL remains a vital tool in the successful delivery of bandwidth-hungry bundled services. The DSL Forum continues to play a critical role in aiding the mass global deployment of IPTV through our development of specifications that not only facilitate increased speed and bandwidth offered by DSL technologies, but also ensure a standardised approach to network management and the interoperability of customer premise equipment, regardless of access technology.”

(1) In 2005-2006 the ‘Other users’ category was estimated on the basis of trial information and supplier shipments; in 2007 this category has become unnecessary as official reporting has increased.