Market research firm Frost & Sullivan has estimated that the number of IPTV (News - Alert) subscribers across 13 countries in the Asia-Pacific region may grow to 22.4 million by 2013.

 

The latest research titled “IPTV Business Case” predicts that IPTV subscription will grow by an amazing 32.7 percent over the next four years.

Of the 13 countries, the researcher says, eight had commercial IPTV services in 2007, while the rest are conducting trials for deployments over the coming months.

Asia-Pacific accounted for about a third of the global IPTV subscriber base last year. While Hong Kong is leading the group with 1.02 million subscribers, Mainland China is running close behind with 0.93 million customers, a figure that makes up 22.7 percent of the region’s market.

According to Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert), Hong Kong has the highest household IPTV penetration rate at 45.3 percent, and is the only market where IPTV dominates the pay-TV industry with a 46.7 percent subscriber market share in 2007.

 

 Cable TV controls 41 percent of Hong Kong's 2.18 million pay-TV subscriber markets, while satellite DTH (direct-to-home) services hold the remaining 12.3 percent.

 

Though there is handful of successful IPTV roll-outs, the business has not yet been very profitable for most service providers. To improve this, the research suggests full-throttle implementation of the service to realize immediate success.

 
"A long payback period is not unique to IPTV services, but is the case for all pay-TV services," said the consulting firm’s analyst Najam.