Worldwide IPTV Subscribers To Reach 90m

Cesar Bachelet, senior analyst at ABI, said: “The IPTV market as a whole is poised for strong growth, but clearly it will be stronger in some areas than in others. ABI Research anticipates particularly substantial growth in North America and most emerging markets.”

In North America, until recently only a few Canadian operators and smaller rural/regional operators in the US have offered IPTV services, although 2007 saw Verizon and AT&T begin to achieve some scale in their fibre deployments. IPTV growth in the US is closely linked to those large fibre rollouts.

IPTV has been available in Western Europe since 1999, so the market is comparatively well-developed already, especially in countries such as France. There is scope for growth, however, as several large markets – such as Germany and the UK – still have relatively low penetration rates.

“Operators are getting very picky when choosing their vendors,” added Bachelet. “They want one with a proven track record, a history of supporting large-scale deployments.” And that cuts two ways: “For telcos, the road to IPTV could still be rocky, because for most, video is a brand new, very sophisticated business, and they are up against incumbent pay-TV operators who have established relationships and a great deal of experience.”

A recent report from market research company, RNCOS, found that the global IPTV market is currently dominated by Europe but it is expected that Asia will emerge as a stronger competitor to Europe in coming years (see Asia To Emerge As IPTV Competitor To Europe).

Meanwhile, a report from market research firm Dittberner shows that Western Europe led the global IPTV market in the third quarter of last year.

According to the report, in 2007 Western Europe held 68% of the global market, however, Asia’s market share will increase and overtake that of Western Europe in 2008 (see Global IPTV Market Shows Growth).