IMS Research forecasts that by the end of 2011, nearly half a billion people will be watching TV on their cellular handsets. Driven primarily by the adoption of broadcast-based services such as DVB-H, mobile digital TV will experience 50% year-on-year growth through 2010.

As Internet Protocol technology becomes more pervasive in the telecommunications industry, next-generation services is increasingly driving growth in the consumer market. Although regulatory constraints and dwindling fixed-line revenues are key challenges for service providers, renewed focus on 3G (Third Generation) services, convergence, and multimedia should enable them to stay ahead of competition.

The triple play model has gained in popularity over the past few years as cable companies and telcos seek to further monetize existing customer relationships and diversify revenue streams. As more players roll out their triple play offers, we believe the model warrants further introspection. In this report, we analyze the value of the multi-play proposition, with an emphasis on a number of key questions, most notably, is triple play indispensable?

The number of subscribers to Internet television worldwide is expected to increase twelve fold by 2010, bringing with it a host of new services for consumers, a market research firm said Thursday. The number of IPTV subscribers is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 92.1 percent to 63.1 million in 2010 from 2.4 million last year, iSuppli Corp. said. The number of subscribers is expected to reach 5.3 million this year.

Inspired--or alarmed--by the rate at which telecom operators in many global markets are deploying fiber-to-the-home networks, an increasing number of cable operators are doing the same, according to a recent study from ABI Research. Selected operators in specific markets are starting to build fiber extensions to their core networks, allowing them to offer more interactive services and get around the limits of coaxial networks.

Research and Markets has announced the addition of Asia/Pacific IPTV Market: Hype and Hope? to their offering.

Over the past decade, incumbent telecom operators in the Asia/Pacific region started to see their revenue growth from traditional businesses slow down with a narrowed profit margin, due to increasing competition brought about by deregulation. The distribution of television over Internet protocol (IPTV) is being viewed as a value-added service with strategic importance in the future broadband service portfolio to increase the ARPU and preserve user stickiness.

The need for high-speed multimedia networking links in the home is driving growth for both MoCA and HomePlug silicon, according to ABI Research. Increased demand for both no-new-wires media networking technologies across both service provider and consumer-installable home networks will result in the combined value of MoCA and HomePlug IC shipments reaching $100 million in 2006 and growing to $464 million by 2011.

The Asia/Pacific region is leading the global revolution of IPTV in infrastructure deployments, applications development, and subscriber adoption, reports In-Stat. The region’s broadband penetration and regulatory support help to foster the fastest-growing IPTV market in the world, the high-tech market research firm says.

In a recently-published report entitled, "The Worldwide Market for Digital Set-top Boxes & iDTVs - 2006 Edition," IMS Research estimates that approximately 96 million digital set-top boxes were shipped in 2005, and forecasts that worldwide shipments of digital set-top boxes will more than double over the next five years, surpassing 200 million units shipped in 2011.

Global IPTV subscriptions are expected to jump from two million to 34 million between 2005 and 2010, reflecting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 60%. According to The Diffusion Group’s latest report, IPTV Update 2006 – The Future of IP Media, North America will experience the most rapid rate of growth during this time period with a CAGR of 78%, followed by Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) with a CAGR of 61% and Asia/Pacific with a CAGR of 41%.

Research and Markets has announced the addition of Evaluating IPTV Vendors Strategies: From End-to-End System to Component Approach to their offering.

Several converging trends are turbocharging the growth of broadband video and distributed entertainment in the home. The explosion of long tail content and the willingness of large content owners to distribute their premium catalog over IP networks, together with the ability of mobile, PC, CE, and set-top devices to act as networked media playback devices, are generating a broadband video "perfect storm" that will gather strength over the next three years.

Research and Markets has announced the addition of 2006 Australia - Broadband Market - Speeding up DSL to their offering.

This report analyses broadband developments in Australia in 2005 and 2006. The broadband battles have moved on from the lack of availability of broadband services to the lack of true broadband (speeds of 2Mb+), competitive prices for such high speed services and new applications such as IPTV and VoIP over broadband. In the meantime penetration is on the rise and is set to continue to do so throughout 2006 and 2007. The government has made some good commitments towards high speed broadband including in regional areas, but the policies remain nebulous.

From being a virtually non- existent market in 2003, the IP video test and measurement market saw significant growth in 2005. New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (http://www.testandmeasurement.frost.com ), World IP Video Test & Measurement Market, finds that this market earned revenues of $52.2 million in 2005 and is likely to reach $289 million in 2010.

The competitive gap to offer video services is closing, according to the third annual survey of GLOBALCOMM 2006 attendees by Tellabs and Telephony magazine. More than half of respondents said that telecommunications service providers will emerge as competitors to cable companies in video services within a year. This time frame narrowed from last year's results, where 54 percent felt the gap would close in less than three years.