Multiscreen services seen to drive IPTV market growth

Wednesday 10 Aug 2011
The IPTV market worldwide will grow over the next five years to reach US$49 billion in service revenues and US$113 million subscribers by 2015, with multiscreen video usage driving wireless services to new highs, according to a new report from Multimedia Research Group (MRG) ipTVNews reported.

Systems revenues for the seven key capital expenditure IPTV products analysed will grow to US$4.8 billion in 2015, with set-top boxes representing about 60 percent of those revenues, according to the report.

By 2015, at least 25 IPTV operators around the world are expected to have over 1 million subscribers, with nine having reached over 3 million, according to MRG.

Europe is predicted to remain ahead of Asia in 2015 in terms of IPTV subscribers, due in part to continued regulatory confusion in Asia.

Smart TVs are still not thought to be affecting overall penetration of set-top boxes, due in large part to difficulties encountered by TV manufacturers in getting enough content rights, and also due to the slow replacement cycle of TVs in most parts of the world.

IPTV operators are generally believed to be using integrated hybrid services (merging satellite, DTT, IPTV and OTT), often using a combination of these to supplement their IPTV services in an integrated Electronic Programme Guide.

By offering integrated hybrid services, IPTV operators are able to provide additional integrated services not available on Smart TVs, according to the report.