IPTV

Telco IPTV subscribers grew from 12 percent to 7.6 million in the third quarter of 2007 (3Q07), according to a Dittberner’s report, entitled “3Q07 Global Broadband Subscriber Survey.”

 

The report states that though the Western Europe Sub-region still leads the IPTV (News - Alert) market, Asia now rivals it in size.

 

A year ago, Western Europe had 68 percent of the global market. The report predicts that Asia’s IPTV market share will continue to grow and may overtake Western Europe in 2008.

 

The Dittberner report also shows France Telecom (News - Alert) leading the top ten service providers by Telco IPTV subscribers, and is up 16 percent this quarter, surpassing 1 million subscribers alone. In second, PCCW (News - Alert) grew three percent this quarter while Free grew 24 percent.

 

Five Asia-based companies are in the top ten service providers by Telco IPTV subscriber.

 

Though France is the country with the most subscribers, the country has the second highest penetration level after Hong Kong. The report suggests that Hong Kong has a higher penetration rate because it has a developed infrastructure with short average LOOP length. Among the top ten countries, the US has the lowest in penetration rate.

 

The report forecasts that China and Korea may see their IPTV subscriber base grow rapidly both due to the high number of broadband subscribers and the high bandwidth each are capable of receiving.

 

Japan currently has over 10 Million FTTH and FTTB/VDSL subscribers, which according to the report, makes it possible to deliver high quality interactive TV services, easily.

 

The report also notes that Internally developed is still the largest IPTV middleware supplier. Thomson, France Telecom’s supplier, is the largest commercial IPTV middleware supplier, and is followed by UTStarcom, which is a supplier to Softbank (News - Alert).