Global IPTV deployments to date would suggest that a half-hearted approach to IPTV services has not been effective. Many service providers feel the urge to launch IPTV services as a defensive strategy to increase their "n-play" offerings with one more service.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, IPTV Business Case, reveals that the IPTV subscriber base in Asia-Pacific -- covering 13 countries -- reached 4.1 million in 2007 and estimates this to reach 22.4 million by end-2013, at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 32.7 percent (2007-2013).

Of the 13 countries, eight had commercial IPTV services in 2007, while the rest are conducting trials for expected deployments from 2009 onwards.

Asia-Pacific accounted for about a third of the global IPTV subscriber base last year. Apart from South Korea, which does not have true IPTV service, the top two Asia-Pac countries by subscribers as of end-2007 are Hong Kong with 24.9 percent (1.02 million subscribers) of the region's IPTV subscriber base and China with 22.7 percent (0.93 million).

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 market, while satellite DTH services hold the remaining 12.3 percent.

With only a handful of successful IPTV roll-outs --- Hong Kong's PCCW, which launched its IPTV service in 2003, being one of the few in the world -- and EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) margins still in the red for most, if not all, IPTV service providers, critics argue that the business case for IPTV does not exist and payday is too long a wait.

The competitive advantage of IPTV over cable and satellite TV services is the ability to provide viewers with a richer viewing experience through innovative and interactive value-added services such as network-based time-shift TV, personal video recording, video-on-demand, and even Internet-based services like online bookings, online network games and online banking.

Over time, wider deployment of IPTV is expected to increase competition in the pay-TV industry and encourage the introduction of innovative value-added services and production of local content.