INSIGHTanalysis: Media Healthcheck – February 2007
February saw several forecasts which predicted the emergence of internet protocol television (IPTV) as a mainstream force, with uSwitch.com stating that the platform is set to take off in 2007.
Strategy Analytics also focused its gaze on IPTV during the month, predicting that the number of IPTV households will grow from 5.8 million homes globally in 2006 to over 80 million in 2011.
According to Strategy Analytics, penetration of pay TV subscribers within this larger group of connected IPTV households will reach 51% by the end of 2011, producing a total paying subscriber base of 41 million homes (see Ofcom Plans New Public Service Channel To Rival BBC).
Meanwhile, Accenture and the Economist Intelligence Unit published the results of a survey they carried out which found that more than half of communications industry executives believe that IPTV can generate significant revenue within the first three years of service (see IPTV Could Generate Significant Revenue Within 3 Years).
The survey of nearly 350 executives from telecommunications, broadcasting and media companies across 46 countries in the Americas, Europe and Asia revealed industry-wide confidence in the longer-term outlook for IPTV.
Research from Frost & Sullivan revealed that the set top box market has been experiencing significant growth, due in most part to IPTV (see IPTV Boosts Set Top Box Market).
Natarajan Krishnamurthy, Frost & Sullivan analyst, said: “The introduction of IPTV functionalities such as digital video recording presents a great opportunity for the growth of the set top box market.”
In addition to the plethora of research concerning IPTV, A report from eMarketer showed that the US remains the single largest internet market in the world with 181.9 million internet users in 2006 (see US Remains Largest Internet Market In The World).
In separate research, eMarketer forecast that onlIne adspend per user will close in on the $100 per user mark in 2008 (see US Online AdSpend Per User To Increase).
Closer to home, the Office of National Statistics released research revealing that eight out of ten internet connections in the UK are now via broadband.
The survey of internet service providers showed that in December 2006, broadband connections accounted for 79.2% of all internet connections (see UK Broadband Connections Increase).
Mobile internet is one of the big talking points at the moment, and Informa Telecoms & Media said in February that the mobile web will herald dramatic growth in revenues in the mobile content and services market (see Mobile Internet To Herald Growth In Content And Service Revenues).
However, with regards to watching television via mobiles, the Chief Marketing Officer’s Council, speaking at the 3GSM conference, said that mobile TV stands in next to last place, in terms of popularity, among all existing mobile services (see Lack Of Consumer Interest In Mobile TV).