The worldwide broadband video market saw explosive growth in 2005, according to ABI Research, and it will continue to grow rapidly through the end of the decade to over $16 billion.

Both pay and ad-supported broadband video markets saw growth in excess of 100% year over year in 2005, driven by consumers' continuing increase in broadband video usage and by content owners' demand for alternative outlets as existing channels (cable, broadcast and DVD) mature. Advertisers are also pushing to increase their expenditure in this market because sought-after demographic groups such as young adults are spending more time online, instead of watching TV.

IMS Research forecasts that the worldwide IPTV market will grow to just over 27 million households by the end of the decade. This growth will be primarily driven by Europe and Asia, with particular contributions from Western Europe and China.

As a region, Western Europe is expected to lead the worldwide IPTV market through the end of the decade, with approximately 12.9 million households by 2010. The region's strong expected collective growth is due to continued success in existing IPTV markets such as France, Italy, Sweden, and the UK, as well as to anticipated take-up in newer markets such as Austria, Spain, Switzerland, and other countries.

The Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) recent decision suggesting that consumers should be able to buy cable channels individually through "a la carte" pricing holds a silver lining for cable and satellite TV service providers, says Gerard Keane, a managing director with BearingPoint, Inc., a leading global management and technology consulting firm.

Analysys International says that MPEG-4 will most probably be chosen as China's IPTV coding (encoding and decoding) standard, which will be decided at the end of year 2005.

News Background:

China's IPTV industry policy, technology and standard workshop was held on November 24th in Beijing. Based on information from the workshop, it is understood that the IPTV standard is currently being drafted. The first draft will be issued at the end of year 2005. The standard will cover 7 aspects: business requirements, general structure, DVB, business platform interfaces, operation platform interfaces, support of the access equipments and study on video coding (encoding & decoding).

Detecon, Inc., a leading global telecommunications and information technology consultant, commented on the pending $6.9 billion acquisition by Cisco of Scientific-Atlanta, the world's second-largest producer of Cable Set-Top Boxes behind Motorola.

"The acquisition makes sense both tactically and strategically," said Eckart Pech, CEO of Detecon, Inc. "The move compensates for Cisco's inability to play a significant role in Telco infrastructure build-outs aimed at offering a full portfolio combining voice telephony, video entertainment, high-speed internet access and wireless services."

Successful IPTV is more about selling broadband than about selling television, argues Pyramid Research's report "Transforming Telcos With IPTV." Telcos are leaders in the broadband space, but remain novices in the pay-TV market. It is arguably more profitable for telcos to maintain their position in the broadband segment than to become a leader in the pay-TV space, as TV is only one of the many revenue-generating applications that can be carried over broadband.

Research and Markets has announced the addition of Screen Digest's latest report: European IPTV: Market Assessment and Forecasts To 2009 to their offering.

European IPTV: Market assessment and forecasts to 2009 is the latest report TV analyst Daniel Schmitt. In it he considers the increasingly competitive arena of Pay TV and the opportunities for IPTV operators in sixteen European markets. The analysis is supported by historic and forecast data covering IPTV penetration, subscribers and market share as well as detailed data and analysis on Cable, Satellite and Free-to-air TV.

According to a recent report from Kagan Research, telcos will continue to find opportunities to develop market share and capture a significant portion of Asia Pacific total pay-TV revenues -- which Kagan forecasts will grow from $13.1 bil. in 2004 to an estimated $38.0 bil. in 2015.

According to ASIA PACIFIC MULTICHANNEL MARKETS 2005, cable could lose its grip on the region in the next ten years, as DTH and IPTV services capture market share. IPTV platforms operated by telcos over DSL or fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) networks are forecast to develop in nine of the region's 13 tracked countries, increasing subscriber share from less than 0.3% in 2004 to 9.4% in 2015. The report also projects that IPTV revenue share will rise from 0.7% in 2004 to 12.9% in 2015.

The number of IPTV subscribers in Europe is poised to increase to 8.7 million by 2009, up from just 658,000 today. The number of IPTV subscribers in Europe has increased 66% so far this year and with more services about to launch, 2005 will see a 200% increase on 2004 figures.

According to a new report from Screen Digest, European IPTV: Market assessment and forecast, IPTV is set to mount a significant challenge to the established satellite and cable operators in Europe. By 2009, IPTV will have a 9.4 per cent share of the European pay TV market.

Research and Markets has announced the addition of IPTV 2005: Battle for the Living Room to their offering.

The aim of this brief is to provide an overview of the current state of Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) development and deployment. This brief focuses on four case studies in Asia, in the Nordics and in North America. Although IPTV is still in its infancy and is an emerging technology, it is believed that IPTV has the potential to change the current TV landscape.

IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) technology may give incumbent US telcos the chance to take the lead in triple play, according to a new report, IPTV: a breakthrough for US telcos?, published by Analysys, the global advisers on telecoms, IT and media.

Currently, the cable operators have the first-mover advantage in triple play. Successfully exploiting the capabilities of IPTV – such as interactivity and a potentially unlimited selection of channels – could stem the tide while yielding increased revenue, higher ARPU and lower churn for incumbent US telcos. However, a number of important uncertainties remain that will impact the success of telco IPTV.

In their quest to pull themselves from the throes of a decaying voice business, telcos have one major hope: IPTV (Internet Protocol Television). The technology promises to transform television, and in the process re-energize telcos by reducing customer churn and introducing new revenue streams. Yet, IPTV is as uncertain as it is tantalizing, and making it work will be as complex as the end-user experience it promises will be easy.

IPTV service revenue, subscribers, and capital expenditures are increasing rapidly, says a new report by analyst firm Infonetics Research, IPTV Equipment and Services Market Outlook.

Worldwide IPTV service revenue will skyrocket to over $44 billion in 2009, according to the report. DSL providers account for the bulk of service revenue now, but cable broadband providers will also migrate to all-IP triple-play services in the next few years, possibly offering wireless services as well.

Research and Markets has announced the addition of Digital TV Markets 2005: Developments in the Europe and the US to 2009 to their offering.

Digital TV Markets 2005 studies the growth of digital TV in Europe and the US - from 2004 to 2009. It reviews the key platforms of satellite, terrestrial and cable as well as the emerging IPTV services. The leading operators in each market are also discussed and their subscribers are forecasted. There is also an analysis and forecast of the PVR market in each country.

A new report by MRG, Inc. analyzes how telecommunications providers will scale their infrastructures to deliver IPTV (IP TV) to their growing subscriber bases. AT&T/SBC, Verizon, France Telecom, Free, and others are expanding their IPTV services, and creating entirely new content delivery models. Network architecture and bandwidth accommodation are two primary considerations -- how will these and smaller IPTV service providers scale their networks to handle subscriber growth? How will these service providers leverage IPTV to compete against cable's sizable installed base for VOD services?