What is the social TV market worth?

Over the last few days a number of sites have featured the news of strong forecasted growth in the social TV market.

Forecasts are stating that the global social TV market, including hardware, is expected to reach US$256.44 billion by 2017 with a compound annual growth rate of 11.2%, according to a report by US based analysts MarketsandMarkets.

The full report is on sale for US$4,650 but before you part with your money read the large print. Yes, we all would agree that social TV is set to grow but this particular forecast has “included hardware” which accounts for 97.6% of the overall social TV market (MarketsandMarkets definition).

Leading media consultant, Graham Lovelace commented “Yes, it appears they have thrown in TV sales and whatever is in the technology and platform segment. The value of the report, at US$4650, is questionable”.