According to the latest research from Informa Telecoms & Media, the IPTV market continues to expand with global IPTV subscriptions reaching 29.7 million at the end of 2009, up from 19.4 million a year earlier. In particular, IPTV has started to win significant share in several emerging markets and has made inroads into some developed mid-sized ones, albeit at a slow pace.

The number of quarterly net new subscriptions, or net additions, for broadband-based TV services from telecoms operators and ISPs reached a record high of 3.2 million in the last three months of last year. But just four countries accounted for nearly two-thirds of all IPTV subscriptions: France, the US, China and South Korea.

IPTV has gained significant share in markets where one or more competing forms of multichannel TV are absent or weak, such as Iceland (81.0%), Qatar (80.0%), Cyprus (67.0%), Slovenia (35.0%), Croatia (25.0%), Estonia (25.0%), Montenegro (23.5%) and Greece (23.5%). Services also began to take the majority of net additions in some more competitive mid-sized markets in 2009, including Switzerland, Belgium, Singapore and Portugal.

This year’s IPTV World Forum in London will bring together the IPTV industry to discuss how the technology can increase its share of the market and the opportunities it presents to players from across the technology market spectrum.