Research and Markets has announced the addition of the Multimedia Research Group report: IPTV Global Forecast: 2006 to 2010 - October 2006 to their offering. This latest forecast is an update to the IPTV Global Forecast - 2006 to 2009 published March 2006. It incorporates the most recent information on IPTV deployments, including:

• The current and planned deployments of IPTV services by large carriers in Europe.
• The current and planned IPTV deployments by competitive and smaller carriers in Europe.
• The current state of IPTV deployments at AT&T, BellSouth, and Verizon in the U.S.
• The initiation of IPTV trials in China and India that indicate very large future IPTV deployments.
• The success of a number of early IPTV deployments in Canada, Europe, and Asia.
• We are forecasting that the number of DSL subscribers will grow from 181 million in 2006 to 317 million in 2010, a compounded annual growth rate of 15 percent.

The steady growth of IPTV subscribers and services revenue continues to show strong upside potential in Europe and Asia with some exceptions in North America, according to the new MRG report IPTV Global Forecast Report -- October 2006.

"The one group of IPTV providers not sharing in the current success of IPTV is comprised of those that have selected Microsoft's software," states Bob Larribeau, IPTV Director for MRG. "Deployments at AT&T, Bell Canada, Deutsche Telekom, and Swisscom are on hold waiting for Microsoft's software."

The explosion in broadband video and Internet TV has created a need for enabling platforms allowing both media companies and enterprises to put their content online. A new breed of application service providers, called Broadband Video ASPs (BBV-ASPs) is emerging to offer publishing, syndication, commerce, content management, security, and other platform components, in the form of software as a service to satisfy these needs. ABI Research expects the broadband video ASP market to reach $1.9 billion turnover by 2011.

Companies such as Brightcove, NBBC (a division of NBC/Universal), Entriq, Roo, Maven Networks, and thePlatform (a division of Comcast) are key competitors in this marketplace.

Kagan Research finds the number of multichannel TV markets positioned to experience hyper-competition will grow from 22 in 2006 to 47 by 2011 as digital cable, IPTV and digital terrestrial (DTT) services gain ground. The findings are drawn from Kagan's soon to be launched Global Multichannel Markets syndicated research service which tracks cable, satellite, IPTV, fixed wireless and digital terrestrial economics in 75 countries across Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America, North America and the Middle East.

The number of China IPTV subscribers is expected to surpass ten million by 2011, says Pyramid Research's latest Analyst Insight.

"We forecast reasonable growth for the next two years, but an upsurge after that" says Harvey Tomlinson, author of the Insight.

Espial has been ranked at the top of the latest ABI Research Vendor Matrix.

ANT Plc and Microsoft claimed the second and third spots in the company's most recent evaluation of worldwide IPTV client middleware vendors.

The Vendor Matrix is an analytical tool developed by ABI Research to provide a clear understanding of vendors' positions in specific markets.

France is leading many countries in the adoption race of IPTV. According to a prediction, by 2006 end, almost half (around 1.7 million) of the Western Europe's IPTV subscribers will be based in France, generating revenue of 141 million euros.

NBC has released the results of a new case study that examines the results of delivering "webisodes" of their hit TV show, "The Office", online.

Here are some of the results:

• The Office webisodes delivered over 1.3 million page views in the first five days
• Weekly page views have soared to an average of 1.4 million, compared to 450,000 during non-original episodes
• Video streams are averaging 600,000 per week - ten times more than during repeat episodes
• Average time spent on the office site has increased to 7 minutes

IPTV? VoIP? Huh?

Nielsen/NetRatings have published a report that reveals the first set of results on the level of knowledge of online and digital technology amongst Britons online.

HELP – WE DON'T UNDERSTAND!

• Although just over half (52%) of Britons online believe online and digital technology does make their life easier, half (50%) say they can't keep up with it all
• Only 27% of those surveyed know what IPTV is, another quarter (27%) has heard of it but doesn't know what it is and nearly half (46%) have never heard of it.

In response to calls from media agencies for more concrete insight regarding multi-screen advertising, the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau released the findings of its 'Which Screen' consumer research study. The independent research conducted by Frank N. Magid Associates attempted to answer four critical questions surrounding consumers' video watching habits and their tolerance for advertising:

• Are video screens interchangeable?
• How, where and when are video devices used?
• Where does today's television fit in a multi-video device home?
• Will viewers tolerate advertising on different platforms?

Research and Markets has announced the addition of eMarketer's new report: IPTV: The Global Picture to their offering.

It all depends on where you look at it. In countries such as France, Spain and Italy, IPTV has the potential to be a genuine revenue-generating service as it fills a gap in the Pay-TV market. For countries like the US and the UK, however, the revenue potential for stand-alone IPTV services will be much more limited.

Next Inning Technology Research, a subscription service focused on semiconductor and technology stocks, has published a special report on the rollout of IPTV and digital video that includes updated outlooks on JDS Uniphase, Finisar, Power-One, and PMC-Sierra.

Based on a recent study, IMS Research is forecasting nearly 40% of TV sets shipped in 2011 will be enabled with some type of digital tuner enabling reception of digital TV without the need for a set-top box. This proportion is up from an estimated 7% in 2005.

The European subscriber base of broadband television services is expected to grow twofold in the current year and is likely to exceed beyond 4 million by 2008. At present IPTV transmitted over broadband networks has very low penetration level in Europe, with only 0.2 percent of the households with televisions. However, within the end of the period up till 2008, there will be more than 6 million houses beaming with IPTV in Europe, explaining the near five percent increase of overall subscribers of pay television.

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the new report from Multimedia Research Group "IPTV Tracking Service Market Leader Report 2006" 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 being provided using the company's products.