Research firm iSuppli Corp. predicts that the worldwide subscriber base for IPTV (News - Alert) services will expand by a factor of more than 26 from 2005 to 2010. The growth will fuel a competitive battle between old and new video services providers.

iSuppli predicts the number of global IPTV subscribers will increase to more than 63 million by 2010, generating more than $27 billion in overall IPTV services revenue by that year. Video services will account for the largest portion of the revenue, followed by value-added media services and IPTV operator advertising, which will comprise more than 14 percent of overall revenue.

The firm predicts that the corresponding licensing revenue across all IPTV services will reach $11 billion by 2010. iSuppli goes on to comment that the global IPTV market is in the first phase of basic service deployment, while the second phase will add an array of value-added and interactive services. Phase three will ultimately bring improvements in integration and interactivity.

IPTV services will include communication, community, voting and interactive advertising, in addition to competitive video offerings. The ability to integrate across multiple platforms is expected to be part of offerings, for integration with additional voice and data services with a number of content types.

Additional features that will differentiate IPTV from traditional video technologies include individualized advertising, intelligent TV recommendations and video programming and recording. Value-added services may also include music, media applications, on-demand gaming, home networking management and security.

“The fight to capture the expanding base of IPTV subscribers will put telecom operators on a collision course with existing pay-TV market competitors and with a new class of broadband video portals as they roll-out progressively more sophisticated offerings,” said Mark Kirstein , VP of multimedia content and services for iSuppli.

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Laura Stotler writes about IP Communications and related topics for TMCnet. She has covered VoIP and related technologies for seven years, contributing to Internet Telephony magazine and TMCnet, and as a freelance writer. To see more articles, please visit: Laura Stotler’s columnist page.