As broadcast TV, movies, and other professionally produced content gets moved onto the Internet, huge opportunities are emerging for vendors who provide hardware, bandwidth and services, reports In-Stat. The value of the annual infrastructure build-out for online entertainment services is expected to quintuple between 2007 and 2011, reaching more than US$4.1 billion, the high-tech market research firm says.

“Bandwidth is the largest value category, with Hardware holding onto a solid share,” says Gerry Kaufhold, In-Stat analyst. “Key growth opportunities will arise for vendors who provide value-added services, such as online publishing, asset management, distribution, and interfaces for billing and advertising services.”

Research and Markets announces the addition of Frost & Sullivan’s new report Canadian IPTV Services Market to their offering.

The Frost & Sullivan research service titled IPTV-Personalizing Television: Canadian IPTV Services Market provides insights into the market for IPTV services and set-top boxes as part of the residential broadband and CPE markets. In this research, Frost & Sullivan's expert analysts thoroughly examine the following markets: broadband, consumer services, IPTV, and residential CPE.

The steady growth of IPTV subscribers and service revenue continues on an upward trend in Europe and Asia and, to some extent, in North America, according to the new MRG report IPTV Global Forecast Report-April 2007.

Driving the market's successful growth in the past 6 months is fast growth in Europe, especially France, Belgium, Spain, Italy and Eastern Europe; in Asia, especially China, Japan, and Hong Kong; and in North America, especially Verizon, the IOCs and Canada. "Our forecast shows service provider revenue growing from $3.6 billion in 2007 to $20.3 billion in 2011," states Len Feldman, Director of IPTV Analysis for MRG. "Europe continues to be the biggest market for IPTV, with France easily leading the growth spurt through IPTV operators Free, Orange France Telecom and Neuf Cegetel."

According to a global research study conducted by Microsoft and research firm Screen Digest, more than 60 percent of consumers in seven benchmark developed countries would consider switching TV service providers to obtain the features and content they want, at current market prices or higher. This finding contradicts previously held assumptions that price is the single most important factor in selecting TV service providers. The study further points to key trends that define the IPTV market and demonstrates that as technology changes the nature of television, old paradigms of behavior may not necessarily apply.

Service providers around the world are turning to IPTV to help them increase revenue and stand out from the crowd, but getting there won't be easy, says a new study from Infonetics Research, "Service Provider Plans for IPTV and Video."

Among the many hurdles are the top 3 business challenges named by North American, Asia Pacific, and European service providers participating in Infonetics' study:

• Competition from cable MSOs
• Profitability of video services
• Cost of video content

The percent of service provider revenue derived from IPTV and video is very small now, but will grow substantially over the next 2 years as the number of subscribers increases, the study shows. In addition, IPTV providers just getting into the market will likely have low introductory pricing to lure subscribers away from their cable and satellite competitors. Only when IPTV operators can add incremental services, such as video on demand, online gaming, exclusive content, etc., will they be able to generate significant ARPU (average revenue per user).

Coupled with impressive growth in its broadband subscriber base, the Asia/Pacific region is standing at the forefront of the Fiber to the Home/Node/Business (FTTx) evolution, reports In-Stat. Carriers such as Korea Telecom and NTT have committed to investing heavily to change copper infrastructures to fiber by 2010, the high-tech market research firm says.

“The next-generation broadband access services strategy, as proven in markets like Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong, is to focus on market proliferation of value-added broadband services, driven by the launch of compelling broadband content IPTV and VoIP and innovative broadband pricing plans,” says Bryan Wang, In-Stat analyst.

A new, independent study by Motorola reveals that almost half of Europe is already watching TV on the internet. No longer wanting to be bound by broadcasters' linear scheduling, users are taking control of their viewing, watching programmes how, when and where they want.

The European study, which surveyed attitudes and behaviours of 2500 broadband users in UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, highlights that a surprising 45 per cent of European viewers are already watching TV online. French television addicts are the most demanding, with 59 per cent choosing to watch previews and episodes of their favourite shows via the web. Italians and Brits come in second and third respectively, whilst German viewers remain most bound to schedules set by TV broadcasters with only 33 per cent catching shows online.

ABI Research's newest study of the IP-STB market has revealed some noteworthy new dynamics. The report includes a SWOT analysis of the major IP-STB vendors worldwide which highlights Motorola's recent emergence as a strong and prominent player.

"Motorola already had a good pedigree with STBs in general," says principal analyst Michael Arden. "When Motorola acquired Kreatel — itself an IP-STB leader — it gained much greater entrée into the European market and others outside its traditional North American base. In addition, the company owns proven technologies from its own and others' video platforms."

Motorola's involvement with the ongoing rollout of telco TV services by Verizon has helped as well. Although AT&T is starting to picking up steam, Verizon will be the market driver in North America, which means Motorola is very well positioned in a rapidly growing market. This trend will accelerate over the next few months, as Verizon pushes its network into new regions.

NSR releases its newest market research and forecast report "IPTV via Satellite: 2nd Edition." The report provides a concise up-to-date analysis of the satellite IPTV market for both B2B and retail modes, describing the forces shaping the business and presenting forecasts on transponder demand in each region over the next 5 years.

The report concludes that IPTV will produce a variety of satellite opportunities for C-band television distribution to telco headends and Ku-band distribution to consumers in some markets. C-band services are rapidly driving capacity in the United States via Intelsat IPTV and SES IP-Prime respective turnkey offerings targeted at U.S. telcos. Hybrid DTH/broadband services in Europe and retail satellite IPTV plans in Asia point to positive momentum for services delivered via Ku-band capacity as well. The mounting competitive pressure on telcos to diversify their business and increase ARPU through entertainment allows satellites to contribute through their broadcast advantage to capture part of the growth.

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the Multimedia Research Group, Inc report: IPTV Market Leaders Report 2007 to their offering.

This Market Leaders report identifies which IPTV systems and software companies are leading each of the IPTV markets globally and within the four regional markets that we track. We have measured market position using estimates of the actual number of active IPTV subscribers that are using or being supported by the company’s products for all product segments except the Video Headends. For the Video Headends we have measured market position using estimates of the number of IPTV channels that are to be provided using the company’s products. Since a Video Headend may support two thousand or two million subscribers, the number of channels is a much better measure of each company’s market position. This methodology gives a good measure of the relative position of each company as well as the prospects for future growth.

Recent Strategy Analytics research forecasts that 90 percent of UK homes will be watching High Definition TV by 2020 as long as Ofcom allocates spectrum on the digital terrestrial television (DTT) platform for HDTV. Without HD on DTT, a mere 60 percent of homes would be watching HDTV by 2020. This report, "HDTV and DTT: The Impact Of Platform Evolution Decisions On HDTV Adoption Scenarios," suggests that the decision on HD-DTT is closely tied to overall policy on the future of public service broadcasting (PSB), and that the availability of HD-DTT is necessary to ensure that PSB does not become unduly weakened relative to pay and commercial television services.

The newest release of ABI Research's set-top box research report shows that Samsung, Coship and other Chinese and South Korean STB vendors collectively account for over 55% of the Asia-Pacific STB market, which is growing faster, in terms of subscribers, than the rest of the world. Moreover, they are using their growing clout and market share to address overseas markets.

New in this edition of the study is a regional breakdown of STB market share for various video platforms. Principal analyst Michael Arden says, "We are seeing more Chinese vendors gaining market share, and not only because of the growth in the domestic market for IPTV, digital cable and satellite there. They are also getting some traction outside their home market, as are South Korean manufacturers, particularly in the IP-STB sector."

As broadband connectivity spreads around the world, so too do the value-added services of VoIP and IPTV.

VoIP is a genuinely disruptive technology and has changed the telecommunications landscape. IPTV, on the other hand, which requires considerably more bandwidth and technical know-how from service providers, is still in its infancy, according to eMarketer's report Broadband Services: VoIP and IPTV.

Pureplay VoIP provider Vonage was the single largest operator in the US at the end of 2006, but this is unlikely to last. Cable MSOs ComCast and Time Warner are growing their VoIP subscriber bases very quickly and will surpass Vonage in 2007.

eMarketer estimates that the number of US VoIP subscribers will rise from 9.8 million at the end of 2006 to 41.3 million by the end of 2011. VoIP subscribers will account for over one-third of all US landline subscriptions in 2010, up from 10% in 2006.

Due to slower than anticipated rollout and take-up of IPTV in the US, eMarketer has revised its estimates down and now forecasts only 4.8 million IPTV subscribers in the US in 2011, up from 300,000 in 2006.

"Early indications suggest VoIP will be very popular worldwide simply because VoIP calls are cheaper," says Ben Macklin, senior analyst and author of the report. Meanwhile, IPTV requires bandwidth, favorable regulatory environments and favorable TV market dynamics, he says.

The steady growth of IPTV subscribers and service revenue continues on an upward trend in Europe and Asia and, to some extent, in North America, according to the new MRG report IPTV Global Forecast Report--April 2007.

Driving the market's successful growth in the past 6 months is fast growth in Europe, especially France, Belgium, Spain, Italy and Eastern Europe; in Asia, especially China, Japan, and Hong Kong; and in North America, especially Verizon, the IOCs (Independent Operating Companies) and Canada. "Our forecast shows service provider revenue growing from $3.6 billion in 2007 to $20.3 billion in 2011," states Len Feldman, Director of IPTV Analysis for MRG. "Europe continues to be the biggest market for IPTV, with France easily leading the growth spurt through IPTV operators Free, Orange France Telecom and Neuf Cegetel."

Fifty-three percent of Internet users would replace their cable and satellite TV with broadband TV, if they could get the same TV channels, according to a new Zogby poll, sponsored by Redback Networks, an Ericsson company.

The Zogby poll asked 1006 Americans how they use broadband services, Internet-connected mobile devices and what video and mobile services they would pay for in the future. The Zogby-Redback findings can be reviewed at http://www.redback.com. Among the highlighted findings:

• 53 percent of Americans would replace cable and satellite with broadband TV
• 88 percent believe video cell phone calls will become reality within five years
• 64 percent of parents would subscribe to mobile TV in cars to entertain kids
• 74 percent believe a video-centric Internet may be more dangerous for kids
• 55 percent say parents and individuals are responsible for making broadband technology safe
• 75 percent agree that it is rude to use a BlackBerry or similar device in a meeting or restaurant
• 70 percent said that people can become 'addicted' to using a BlackBerry or similar device
• 80 percent agree that it should be illegal to use Internet mobile devices while driving
• 29 percent feel parents have primary responsibility to make Internet devices safe for kids
• 12 percent said they either had or nearly had a car accident checking email on their Blackberry
• 5 percent of respondents confessed checking email on Internet mobile devices in the bathroom