MONTEREY, CA – After weathering the global recession, IPTV is emerging as a strong market alternative in the increasingly competitive global multichannel space, according to new research from SNL Kagan.
IPTV, which accounted for only 0.01% of global multichannel households at the end of 2003, grew to include 4.9% of pay-TV subscribers in 2009. With subscribers growing 46.9% year-over-year between 2008 and 2009, the market research firm projects the number of IPTV subscribers will grow to 59.7 million by 2013, translating to an 8.3% subscriber share. IPTV video service revenues are expected to reach $22.6 billion by 2013, accounting for 9.8% of total global pay-TV revenues.
“Telco’s penetration of the video business has the potential to fuel multichannel TV hypercompetition,” said SNL Kagan senior analyst Ben Reneker, in a statement. “As pay-TV operators face increasing pressure to meet consumer expectations for channel diversity and on-demand offerings, IPTV will be well-positioned to deliver, further eroding cable and DTH subscriber share globally.”
According to SNL Kagan analysis, Western Europe leads the global IPTV realm with 13.2 million IPTV subscribers at year-end 2009, followed by Asia Pacific and North America, with 9.6 million and 6 million subscribers, respectively. However, the company forecasts Asia Pacific will surpass Western Europe in IPTV subscriber population, reaching 19.3 million by 2012. North America, currently the most lucrative IPTV market globally, is positioned to maintain its top position for the foreseeable future.
The research will appear in an upcoming whitepaper entitled ‘The State of Global IPTV’, which is scheduled to be released during the upcoming IPTV World Forum.
