IPTV Moving Into Mainstream TV Marketplace
Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) is forecast to be firmly established as an alternative platform to digital satellite, terrestrial and cable transmission over the next ten years, with delivery of television over the internet transforming the TV market industry.
According to new research from LoveLace Consulting and informitiv, television will become increasing like the internet, with scheduled broadcast channels becoming displaced by millions of download and on-demand programmes.
Commenting on the future of TV in respect to the new technology, Dr William Cooper, co-author of the report, said: “New players will exploit the disruptive power of the internet and change the form and function of television forever. Broadcast television will ultimately adopt the attributes of the web, providing access to an almost limitless selection of programmes.”
According to co-author, Graham Lovelace, the ‘pull’ of broadband network television will replace the ‘push’ of traditional broadcast. Control will shift from the broadcaster to the consumer, with viewers constructing personalised and unique playing schedule, watching programmes at their own convenience.
Cooper and Lovelace assert that the next five years will be critical for the HDTV market place, with competition coming not from rival platform operators, but between closed and open networks.
Barry Cox, chairman of Switchco said: “This study of IPTV is all too credible, both in the account of current developments and about the highly disruptive challenges all communications businesses are now facing.”
He added: “Clever people will find ways of making money out of this fascinating future, but its going to be a hard struggle for some of us.”
The latest research from Informa Telecoms & Media, predicts IPTV o reach 25.9 million subscribers globally by the end of 2010, up from just 2.7 million at the end of 2005 (see IPTV To Reach 25.9 Million By 2010).
The report, IPTV: A Global Analysis, claims that China will be the leading IPTV market, with 4.9 million subscribers by the end of 2010. The US is forecast to be in second place, with 3.4 million, while Hong Kong, the leading country in 2004 with 475,000 subscribers, will drop to eighth position by 2010, having been overtaken by the UK with 1.5 million.
Earlier estimates from Informa claimed that the strong growth in IPTV will be aided by rapid advances in digital subscriber line (DSL) penetration, with high profile launches within the area expected in the second half of 2005 and 2006.