Research and Markets has announced the addition of New Semiconductors for Global IPTV Markets to their offering.

This examines three main classes of components that will have a major effect on the deployment of IP TV: VDSL, Fiber to the Premise (FTTP), and Video Compression/Decompression (codec) Components. The VDSL and FTTP components improve the performance of IP TV networks by increasing the bandwidth provided to each subscriber. The Video codec components improve the performance of IP TV networks by lowering the bandwidth required to transmit video streams to subscribers. Specific components covered include VDSL-1, VDSL-2, APON & BPON, EPON, GPON (transmission); and MPEG-2, Windows Media 9/VC-1 and MPEG-4/H.264 (codec) chips. Nine suppliers are profiled, including Aware, Texas Instrument, BroadLight, Equator, LSI Logic, Sigma Designs and others.

Telcos' IPTV Subscribers Will Barely Surpass 2 Million By 2009

Forrester research released a report that offers a less ambitious viewpoint on IPTV in the coming years. The report states that telephone companies have a difficult migration ahead of them and it‘s going to cost a lot to catch up to cable companies. Despite all the recent excitement, Maribel Lopez writes "it is a long road from today's flashy Consumer Electronics Show (CES) demos to mass adoption of telco IPTV."

Our take: While it will be a long road before telcos’ IPTV offerings are as bulletproof as cable is now, we have seen very promising momentum made by Verizon in securing relationships with media partners and building out a network to support media delivery. SBC may have been the first to announce their ambitions for an IPTV offering, but Verizon is on the fast track to actually bringing it to life.

Research and Markets has announced the addition of IPTV: broadcasting over broadband to their offering.

The landscape for digital TV services is changing rapidly. While digital cable, digital terrestrial and satellite services continue to develop across Europe, there are signs that broadband networks will emerge as a significant fourth platform for DTV services. However, significant obstacles still prevent IPTV from becoming a mass-market proposition in the short term.

Part of MRG's IPTV Tracking Service, the new IP TV Market Leader Report--March 2005 measures the competitive position of 62 suppliers for 223 service providers (an increase of 30% over the previous report), serving over 2 million subscribers. The global report ranks these 62 hardware/software suppliers for their "market position" and "growth opportunity" in Asia, Europe, North America, and the "ROW" in each of six market sectors, including analysis of which service providers buy the most products within each sector.

Multimedia Research Group, Inc. (MRG, Inc.) announced its new semi-annual IP TV Forecast, IP TV Global Forecast Update - March 2005, as part of its year-round IP TV Tracking Service. Projecting growth from 1.9 million subscribers in 2004 to 25.3 million in 2008, for the first time the forecast includes System Integration & Professional Services as part of its global forecast. In addition to the 6 other product sectors broken down by region and country (IP TV Set-top boxes, Video Headends, VOD Servers, Middleware, Access Equipment, and Content Protection), the report also forecasts IP TV subscriber revenue growth from $635 million in 2004 to $7.2 billion in 2008, also broken down on regional and service-provider levels.

ABI Research reports that large cable operators are on the run to migrate. Telephone companies are racing towards "triple play" services and the pressure is causing cable television operators like Time Warner in the US and NTL in the UK are moving to install "next generation network architecture" (NGNA) based on IP (Internet Protocol) technologies.

A new study from ABI Research — "Worldwide CATV Infrastructure Market" — examines this migration, the new services it will enable, and the new revenue streams that it will bring to cable operators.

In his report "IP Television: Business Case Analysis & Global Forecasts," published January of 2005, Hervé Utheza gives an overview of the key technologies and products as well as the business aspects and trends impacting the emerging IPTV market.

The IP TV Business Case and Global Forecast 2004 to 2007 was published in April 2004 by Multimedia Research Group, Inc. (MRG), publisher of market analyses of new technologies for the communications industries and market intelligence and strategy consultant. The report identifies opportunities, risks and the development of the IPTV market in Europe, Asia and North America and provides forecasts for IP TV subscriber and revenue growth.

The telecommunications, entertainment, video and multimedia markets are undergoing sweeping changes, currently characterized by expanding product/services developments such as Verizon FiOS and SBC Project Lightspeed. At the heart of a digital home is the technical concept known as the media centre. This combines voice, video and data applications, and includes VoIP, broadband TV, digital video recorders (DVR or PVR), home networking, CD and DVD playback and MP3. Cable TV operators, telcos, consumer electronics and IT companies are all competing for the media centre business for the digital home. The business model to deliver these integrated products is know as a triple-play model, where by voice, video and data applications are all delivered over one single access subscription.

Accedo Broadband writes that "broadband will revolutionize home entertainment" and they provide a strong evidence to back it up.

Broadband applications and services will not only serve as the classic device for accessing the Internet, but will also allow for a new range of IPTV services such as games, video and audio. Thus, broadband will not only affect the Internet industry, but will also open a whole new market for the TV, music and gaming industries.

IPTV, or the distribution of a television service over broadband access lines, will take a turn towards full commercial deployment in 2005. The 2004 launch of services such as Maligne TV and CanalSat DSL in France, FastWeb in Italy, and the announced 2005 TV-over-DSL launch by BellSouth, SBC and Verizon in the United States have propelled this new technology onto the front page of industry attention. The Business of IPTV: Global Analysis & Forecasts, a new study from TDG Research, suggests that the majority of global IPTV growth will be fueled by hybrid deployments that combine digital satellite or terrestrial TV services with IP-based TelcoTV offerings.