Over half of consumers would switch their pay TV services if they could get a better price for the same channel selection. A new report from Jupiter Research points out that down to earth pricing, not high technology is the most importance differentiation between services competing for television connection customers.
Joseph Laszlo, research director at JupiterResearch and author of the report explained: “While Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) proponents get caught up in the futuristic possibilities for the technology, consumers remain much more level-headed about what they look for in a TV service.”
He continued: “Competitors looking to deploy IPTV should avoid overwhelming the consumer with Jetsons-like ‘TV of the future’ and focus, instead, on delivering real value in terms of TV of the present.”
Jupiter claims that new entrants to the US IPTV market face daunting challenges, with 66% of current pay TV subscribers happy with their current service, requiring aggressive pricing, better channel selection and other clear benefits to induce switching.
Despite strong growth expected in the IPTV industry, increasing from 200,000 households in 2005 to 3.4 million by 2010, the IPTV market is still relatively small.
However, the technology is still well known, with research from Harris Interactive finding that 56% of US adults say they have heard of IPTV. The report also revealed that a substantial number of users are interested in adopting the technology, with 26% saying they would adopt it for use on their TVs and 19% for use on their computers.
Earlier research from LoveLace Consulting and informitiv forecast the next five years to be critical for the IPTV market, with the technology becoming firmly established as an alternative platform to digital satellite, terrestrial and cable transmission (see IPTV Moving Into Mainstream TV Marketplace).
Informa Telecoms & Media, predicts IPTV to reach 25.9 million subscribers globally by the end of 2010, up from just 2.7 million at the end of 2005 (see Popularity Of E-Shopping Continues To Grow).
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.
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