Worldwide IPTV Market Doubles for Second Year Running

Telecom News Editorials Reports Glossary

6:15 am on August 1, 2008 | Category: Business, Telecom Services, Television

The worldwide IPTV subscriber base more than doubled for the second year running during the 12 months leading up to March 2008, hitting a record of almost 15.5 million customers at the end of that month, according to a report prepared for the Broadband Forum by market analysts at Point Topic.

Europe remained well in the lead geographically, with 8.4 million subscribers and stronger growth than any other region.

“IPTV operators around the world have shown that systems are scalable and can handle rapid growth in subscriber numbers,” commented senior Paint Topic analyst, John Bosnell. “However, developing and agreeing (to) standards will help these operators deliver IPTV more simply and effectively over a variety of access technologies and help to drive higher uptake in other markets.”

ADSL2+ remains the leading IPTV access technology, and is relied upon by more than 12 million users. Fiber-optic IPTV technology is also showing early promise, and is the basis for the budding Verizon FiOS and AT&T U-verse pay-TV services in the United States.

“This report shows that although DSL remains the key vehicle for delivering broadband associated services, alternative access technologies, such as fibre, are increasing their footprints and their requirements need to be considered in our work,” said George Dobrowski, Chairman and President of the Broadband Forum. “The Broadband Forum recognises this and is working hard to make sure fibre is integrated seamlessly in to existing broadband architectures and management platforms worldwide.”