GIA announces the release of a comprehensive global report on IPTV market. Global market for IPTV is projected to register 557.57 million subscribers by the year 2017. Primary factors expected to drive growth in the market over the next few years include growing demand for digital media entertainment, introduction of innovative iPTV applications, attractive pricing models and service packages and entry of new iPTV operators. Growing penetration of connected TV sets, widespread proliferation of smart devices such as smart phones and tablet PCs, and increasing bandwidth speeds of broadband networks also augur well for the market.

Television industry witnessed several revolutionary changes since the dawn of the new millennium, with ‘digitalization’ being the most prominent among these changes. Growing demand for high-quality audio and video content among viewers, keen desire among television broadcasters to allow more channels in same spectrum and that too at lower costs, and stringent government mandates ordering termination of all analog TV broadcasts, have been driving increased adoption of digital television, thereby driving market for iPTV. Although youngest of available digital media platforms, iPTV has evolved into one of the fastest growing television broadcast mediums. Such has been the success of iPTV that the number of subscribers to the service continued to grow at double digit rate even amidst the 2007-2009 economic recession. Steady gains in subscriber numbers largely helped support IPTV system revenues during this period. The demand for cheaper home entertainment against the backdrop of recession induced decline in personal income and household wealth and reduced ability to spend especially proved to be a catalyst for growth in iPTV market during the period.

Introduction of new innovative IPTV applications and programs is expected to drive the global iPTV market in the years to come. Intense competition among iPTV operators, content developers and service providers is encouraging development of highly creative, entertaining and localized content, which will help attract more subscribers to this emerging digital television medium. As iPTV continues to mature and starts featuring more personalized, interactive and on-demand entertainment, its opportunities galore market. Entry of several new operators also augurs well for the market as it only intensifies competition in the marketplace, thereby driving innovation in terms of content and service delivery. New telcos in particular are offering iPTV services as a part of bundled service package to partially offset the losses from voice revenue. Cable and Satellite TV operators are also expected to follow suit and adopt TV-over-IP platforms in order to gain from this growing market.

Increasing bandwidth speeds, thanks to successful rollouts of fiber-based high-capacity broadband connections will additionally boost market prospects for iPTV, as high bandwidth network enables seamless transmission of high quality live television content over the Internet. Improvement in Quality of Service, reduction of deployment times, introduction of innovative service packages and competitive pricing will be critical for iPTV services to gain mass market adoption.

As stated by the new market research report on IPTV, Asia-Pacific is the largest regional market for iPTV in terms of subscriber enrollments. Growing consumer affluence, increasing penetration of internet enabled devices such as smartphones, connected TV sets, and Tablet PCs, fast improving broadband penetration levels and soaring demand for high-quality premium TV content are primary factors driving iPTV adoption in the region. Growth in Asia-Pacific is primarily led by China and South Korea. By service revenue the global iPTV market is led by Europe. By system revenue, Set-Top Boxes market is the largest revenue contributor.

Major players in the marketplace include Key iPTV Carriers/Operators such as AT&T Inc, Belgacom, Bell Canada Enterprise Inc, BT Group plc, China Telecom Corporation Limited, Comcast Corporation, Deutsche Telekom AG, FastWeb TV, France Telecom SA, PCCW Limited, CenturyLink Inc. , Telecom Italia SpA, Verizon Communications Inc and Key iPTV Vendors/System Providers such as Alcatel-Lucent SA, Cisco Systems, Inc, ECI Telecom Ltd, Entone, Inc, Envivio, Inc, Microsoft Corporation, Motorola Mobility Inc., NEC Corporation, Orca Interactive Ltd., Sprint Nextel Corporation, Widevine Technologies, Inc., Viaccess S.A., among others.

The research report titled “Internet Protocol Television: A Global Strategic Business Report” announced by Global Industry Analysts, Inc., provides a comprehensive review of market trends, drivers, product profile, end-use analysis, product introductions, mergers, acquisitions, and other strategic industry activities. The report analyzes global iPTV market in terms of number of subscribers (in millions) and annual service revenue (US$ million). Market estimates and projections are presented for major geographic markets such as United States, Canada, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of World. The report also analyzes global iPTV market (in US$ million) by systems - Set-Top Boxes, Access Systems, Video Headend Equipment, Video-on-Demand, Middleware, Content Protection and System Integration.