Research and Markets announces the addition of IPTV in Asia: Carriers Start the Battle to their offering.

With a warm up period over the past few years, Asia/Pacific IPTV subscriber numbers have increased quickly. There were 2.7 million subscribers by the end of 2006, an 87.4% growth rate from 2005.

The Asia/Pacific IPTV market's development has remained diversified. Mature markets include Japan and Hong Kong, with approximately 60% of the total subscribers in 2006. They are expected to continuously take the lead in the regional IPTV development process.

Together with the fast expanding broadband infrastructure and decreases in service price, an expanding middle class is transforming China into the future IPTV dragon. Taiwan and Singapore have a relatively higher penetration of broadband and are pioneers in technology adoptions. For South Korea, the government regulatory issues are expected to be solved soon.

Australia and New Zealand are lagging behind other developed markets, with conservative attitudes from major telecom operators and low general public interest. Other markets like India, Malaysia, and Thailand, together with China, are fueling the growth of the Asia/Pacific IPTV market. Indonesia and the Philippines are expected to provide little uptake due to their weak infrastructures. It is expected that by 2009, IPTV will be present in all of the markets in the region.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that IP-based HDTV is on its way to the Asia/Pacific, with both Hong Kong PCCW and Singapore Singtel expected to start offering IP-based HDTV in 2007.