MRG Reports Global IPTV Service Revenue Growing to US$46 Billion by 2014

Telcos Use Discreet Upgrades to Answer Cable Threat

San Jose, CA: July 8, 2010Multimedia Research Group, Inc. (MRG) announced that its updated report on global annual growth shows IPTV subscribers will reach 102 million in 2014, a 25% CAGR. Despite economic hardship in some countries, robust Broadband and IPTV investments have been driving growth as a means to meet and outperform Cable and Satellite competition. IPTV Operators are using Fiber in high-competition markets and advanced DSL such as channel bonding and VDSL2 in other (less competitive) markets. As a result, Telcos have been discreetly improving their IPTV bandwidth capacity to sub-markets that need upgrades without overspending in markets that don’t require immediate upgrading.

The Eastern European IPTV market is moving quickly to early maturity, while ROW markets show faster gains than other regions. "As late as 2007, Eastern Europe had only a few IPTV trials or startups. Now, there are 16 fully operating IPTV Operators and another 3-6 in trial," says Jose Alvear, IPTV Analyst with MRG. "These Operators continue to grow their service base, because they have much greater technical and creative control over their service than their Cable competition." By 2014, Europe will have 45% of the global market, Asia 31%, North America 19% and ROW about 5%.

High ARPUs still favor Europe and U.S. IPTV markets, with largest service and systems revenues also coming from these regions. Of the specific CapEx items tracked by the report, expenditures will grow from US$3.1 billion in 2010 to US$5.1 billion in 2014, while Service Revenue will grow from US$17.5 billion to US$46 billion in 2014. Over 50 companies are profiled in the report, including many emerging markets in Eastern Europe and ROW. Despite many obstacles and competition, 23 IPTV SPs (mostly in Asia and Europe) will have exceeded the million-subscriber mark by 2014. "For many IPTV Operators, STBs (Set-top Boxes) make up over 70% of CapEx expenditures," says Alvear. "Therefore we can expect greater penetration of integrated hybrid, IPTV, and OTT STBs (including connected TVs with STBs embedded in TV Sets)."

In the North American markets, all eyes have recently turned to Verizon and AT&T, each adding about 1 million subscribers in 2009. Since Verizon stopped signing new franchise agreements outside its existing footprint, speculation is growing that Verizon will switch from its QAM/IPTV architecture to an all IPTV (Fiber-based) architecture for future franchises after 2010. Meanwhile AT&T, with no such technical constraints, is free to use a “discreet upgrade” approach to growing bandwidth using a mix of advanced DSL or FTTX as needed.

The new IPTV Global Forecast Report – 2010 to 2014 (June 2010) is 116 pages and is available in a printed English language edition for $3,995.00 USD, a PDF single-departmental license for $5,200.00 USD, and is available free as part of MRG's IPTV Tracking Service. For a corporate license or to order the report, contact Rob Smith at 1-408-453-5553 or rsmith@mrgco.com.



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