Research and Markets has announced the addition of Global - Digital Media - Video Media to their offering. The convergence of telecoms, media and IT saw the arrival of Digital Media. This report focuses on some of the key online video applications. While the narrowband services have been around for several years, new video applications have now also emerged as the Internet media companies seek to exploit the added speed and capacity of broadband infrastructure. As speed and capacity increase, a whole new range of applications will continue to enter the market over the next decade. VoD and DVRs are both ways for subscribers to watch movies or TV programs whenever or wherever they want. However, rather than straightforward video-based entertainment, it is envisaged that the industry will produce new entertainment which will include new elements based on personalised and interactive video applications. This report provides an introduction to Video Media entertainment with a focus on VoD and includes analyses, statistics and forecasts.

Research and Markets has announced the addition of Eastern European Pay Television to their offering. Since 2004 the CEE country economies and Russia have enjoyed rapid expansion, growing at more than double the rate of markets in Western Europe. 2007 saw the market growing at its fastest rate, with 18 percent growth of total pay TV subscribers.

Whilst Western European Pay TV markets are almost at saturation point, there is still huge potential for growth in the Eastern European markets and Russia especially. Growth comes as more subscribers are attracted to the satellite platform and new channels are launched to meet demand. Cable operators too are starting the process of digitisation which will enable them to reap the rewards of an improved viewer experience.

Sparked by increasing broadband penetration and rising connection speeds available to a growing percentage of the world’s population, over-the-top video has seen phenomenal growth in very recent years. A new study from ABI Research forecasts the number of viewers who access video via the Web to nearly quadruple in the next few years, reaching at least one billion in 2013.

Increasingly, the methods used to deliver this content are changing, in order to reduce the strain on broadband networks. These include content distribution networks that cache content closer to the user, peer-to-peer networks which leverage users’ PCs, and hybrid networks which combine these two approaches.

Communications market research firm Infonetics Research reports in a new study that a growing number of North American, European, and Asia Pacific service providers are betting on IPTV and video services to stay ahead of the competition.

The report, Service Provider Plans for IPTV and Video, says the loss of revenue associated with fixed-line telephony services to cable operators and other competitors, along with the threats to revenue posed by over-the top Internet content providers, such as Google, Apple, and Yahoo!, are forcing service providers to move into the TV business to increase ARPU, reduce churn, and expand their brands beyond the staid, monolithic telephone company.

Reportlinker.com announces that a new market research report related to the Broadband industry is available in its catalogue. World Internet Protocol Television (iPTV) Markets

This report analyzes the worldwide markets for Internet Protocol Television (iPTV) in Millions of Subscribers and Millions of US$. The Specific types of Systems analyzed include Set-Top Boxes, Access Systems, Video Headend Equipment, Video-on-Demand, Middleware, Content Protection, and System Integration. The report provides separate comprehensive analytics for the US, Canada, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of World. Annual forecasts are provided for each region for the period of 2004 through 2014. The report profiles 159 companies including many key and niche players worldwide such as Key iPTV Carriers/Operators, AT&T Inc., Belgacom, Bell Canada Enterprise Inc., British Telecom, China Telecom Corporation Ltd., Comcast Corporation, Deutsche Telekom AG, FastWeb TV, France Telecom SA, PCCW Limited, Qwest Communications International Inc., Telecom Italia SpA, Verizon Communications Inc., Alcatel-Lucent SA, Cisco Systems Inc., ECI Telecom Ltd., Entone Inc., Envivio Inc., Microsoft Corporation, Motorola Inc., NEC Corporation, Orca Interactive Ltd., Sprint Nextel Corporation, Widevine Technologies, Inc., and Viaccess S.A. Market data and analytics are derived from primary and secondary research. Company profiles are mostly extracted from URL research and reported select online sources.

Redback Networks announces the results of a nationwide survey in the United Kingdom, measuring the popularity of on-demand TV and Internet video.

In a survey of 2168 online adults, the Redback sponsored research showed that more than half of UK residents (57%) watch up to 10 hours or more of on-demand TV or recorded TV each week. This is TV that either supplements or replaces broadcast TV viewing. The same survey also found that women watched more on-demand or recorded TV than men (58% vs. 55%). Seniors (55+) and young adults (18-24) watched the most on-demand or recorded TV (60%); 25-34 year-olds watched the least (51%).

The most common methods for recording programmes in the UK were Sky+ (22%), personal video recorders, and VHS machines (27%).On demand services are also used for later recorded viewing. 11% use On demand TV services, whilst 16% use internet catch up services, such as the BBC iPlayer.

The new worldwide IPTV Forecast from MRG, the only bi-annual IPTV report based on over 600 IPTV Operators worldwide in over 70 countries, confirms that the increased revenues of Telcos and IPTV Operators remain in positive financial territory, and are not negatively impacted by the global turmoil in the credit, oil and housing sectors. The new forecast, based on most recently verified subscriber and revenue growth data, shows IPTV subscribers growing from 24.4 million to 92.8 million 2008-2012; and service revenue totaling $37.1 billion by 2012, with CapEx growing to $5.5 billion. While Europe's subscriber size in 2012 will remain dominant, Asia's subscriber base will nearly equal Europe's in 2012, followed by North America.

comScore releases March 2008 data from the comScore Video Metrix service, indicating that U.S. Internet users viewed 11.5 billion online videos during the month, representing a 13-percent gain versus February and a 64-percent gain versus March 2007.

Google Sites Extends Lead in Online Video Market Share

In March, Google Sites once again ranked as the top U.S. video property with more than 4.3 billion videos viewed (38 percent share of all videos), gaining 2.6 share points versus the previous month. YouTube.com accounted for 98 percent of all videos viewed at Google Sites. Fox Interactive Media ranked second with 477 million videos (4.2 percent), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 328 million (2.9 percent) and Viacom Digital with 249 million (2.2 percent).

In the past five years, IPTV has grown from a handful of deployments by a few pioneering telcos and ISPs to an established part of the pay-TV landscape with services spanning the globe from Australia to the Ukraine. But now, according to ABI Research, this “adolescent” industry must find ways to create a distinct identity so it can continue to grow and prosper, with IPTV operators creating unique service offerings that are differentiated from the traditional video services of their key competitors.

Screen Digest examines the market for pay TV in 12 Central and Eastern European countries, and Russia. Eastern European Pay Television reveals that, driven by continued strong growth in both cable and satellite markets, total pay TV penetration will increase rapidly in the region from 40 per cent at the end of 2007 to 60 per cent by 2012 with a total of 63m homes subscribing to pay TV services. This impressive growth will be driven by a strong pay TV market in Russia which will account for 28m of the region’s pay TV subscribers by 2012.

Since 2004 the CEE country economies and Russia have enjoyed rapid expansion, growing at more than double the rate of markets in Western Europe. 2007 saw the market growing at its fastest rate, with 18 percent growth of total pay TV subscribers.

Yankee Group announces that there is a significant shift taking place in the advertising industry—cable and IPTV operators will lose out to internet video platforms in the competition for the incremental ad revenue that supports investments in interactive television. By the time cable and IPTV operators will be able to deliver interactivity to a large number of households, content owners and advertisers will have already made long-term interactive platform investments online.

According to the recently published Yankee Group Report, The High-Water Mark for Interactive Cable, digital and interactive advertising is the cornerstone for the infrastructure investments necessary to support interactive programming. Cable networks will continue to command large linear audiences and above-the-line advertising revenue, but cable operators will be limited in their ability to deliver interactive experiences that can compete with internet video.

The pay-TV market in Western Europe is generally considered to be mature, but the increasing deployment of IPTV services will see the market enjoy a modest rate of growth in the number of households subscribing to pay-TV services, according to the latest research published by Analysys Mason, the premier advisors on telecoms, IT and media.

According to the Analysys Mason report, Pay TV in Western Europe: market sizings and forecasts 2005–2013, the number of households subscribing to pay-TV services will increase at a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 3.2% from 90.6 million in 2007 to 109.2 million by the end of 2013.

The IMS Research study IPTV: A Global Market Analysis - 2008 Edition forecasts that, on a worldwide basis, shipments of IP set-top boxes will grow at a CAGR of 37.1% through the end of 2012. These shipments will represent revenues of $3 billion. IP + Digital Terrestrial hybrid STBs are expected to comprise 30% of shipments in 2012 with HD DVR boxes nearing 35%.

Research and Markets has announced the addition of "Triple Play: Building the converged network for IP, VoIP and IPTV" to their offering. “Triple Play” is a combination of Internet access, voice communication, and entertainment services such as IP television and video on demand.

The erosion of the traditional voice service, together with the ever-increasing competition between companies, is pushing the telecommunications industry towards a major shift in its business models. Customers want more services in a more flexible way. Today, this shift can only be carried out by offering converged services built around the Internet Protocol (IP). Triple Play, a bundle of voice, video, and data services for residential customers, is the basis of this new strategy.

Research and Markets has announced the addition of “IP Multicast with Applications to IPTV and Mobile DVB-H” to their offering.

This book provides a concise guide to current IP Multicast technology and its applications, with a focus on IPTV and Digital Video Broadcast-Handheld applications—areas of tremendous commercial interest. Traditional phone companies can use IP Multicast technology to deliver video services over their networks; cell phone companies can use it to stream video to handheld phones and PDAs; and many cable TV companies are considering upgrading to IP technology. In addition to applications in industries seeking to provide high-quality digital video and audio, there are numerous other practical uses: multi-site corporate videoconferencing; broad distribution of financial data, stock quotes, and news bulletins; database replication; software distribution; and content caching.