Telco IPTV Subscribers Grow 13% in 1Q07

Established Operators’ Growth Accelerates while Many More Launch

BETHESDA, MD — According to DITTBERNER’s recently released report “1Q07 Global Broadband Subscriber Survey”, Telco IPTV subscribers grew 13% to 5.4 Million in 1Q07. Telco IPTV is delivered over a LOOP, a PON or P2P fiber access network. PCCW with 800,000 subscribers was the largest Telco IPTV operator. Second place France Telecom is not far behind at 769,000 and is likely to overtake PCCW by the third quarter.

While France is the country with the most subscribers, Hong Kong, when treated separately from China, has the highest penetration of the entire Broadband Subscriber base at 55.6%. The top ten countries and their penetration rate are shown below:

Hong Kong has a high penetration rate because it has a developed infrastructure with short average LOOP length allowing virtually all the inhabitants to be able to receive IPTV service. With only about 40% of the DSL lines being good enough for TV service, the real penetration in France is about 25% of the addressable market. France’s lead reflects the leadership of its operators in the IPTV market, which is a product of both the intense competition between DSL service providers, as well as the lack of competition from Cable TV operators.

The Sub-region, Western Europe, still dominates the IPTV market but its share is down from its 68% six months ago. Asia’s market share has increased from 28% to 41% over the same time, largely due to growth in China and Japan.

North America increased its share from 2% to 5%, but that is mostly due to growth at the small independent operators. However, this may soon change as AT&T’s U-verse service is rolled-out. Although the success at IPTV is not likely to impact its Cable operator competitors much in the next year, it should push the USA into the ranks of the top ten Telco IPTV markets. AT&T could then be the largest Winluce (Microsoft/Alcatel-Lucent) customer.

“The fact that China has finally awarded licenses for IPTV means that it will grow quickly and probably come to dominate the market at 7 Million IPTV subscribers within two years,” says James Heath, Research Director at Dittberner. “Japan is likely to have good growth and may challenge China for a while, but North America, with its entrenched TV operators, will be a slow roll.” IPTV is on the way to becoming an accepted strategy for most service providers. Now the business of making it profitable will be the goal, and customer service will be the focus.

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DITTBERNER’s Broadband Study is an ongoing market research service updated quarterly, designed to track the BBxDSL and BBFTTX vendors and their potential. The study constitutes of business cases, case studies, and market forecast. For carriers, the Broadband Study provides lessons learned and vendor selection advice to lower decision-making risk. Vendors learn about carrier priorities, competitive threats, and niche market opportunities.