Research and Markets announces the addition of the "Worldwide Telco TV Services 2008: Explosive Growth Continues" report to their offering. Telco TV continues to grow as new players around the world get on the bandwagon and existing players increase their footprint, penetration, content, and range of services. This report discusses key players including AT&T, Verizon, France Telecom, Telefonica, Deutsche Telecom, China Telecom as well as other incumbent and emerging operators around the world. The discussion covers not only what they are doing but also how successful they have been and what they face in terms of competition.

While triple play has always been the name of the game, increasingly quadruple- as well as double- and single-play offerings are coming on to the scene. Catch-up TV has gained tremendous popularity around the world. And convergence applications are emerging as Microsoft's Mediaroom platform gains traction.

Content is, at the same time, going more international, ethnic, and local. While this seems like a contradiction, the name of the game is finding content that niche markets are willing to pay for. This year saw a clear trend toward content geared toward immigrant populations, especially in Western Europe. In small towns in North America, there are interesting experiments that revolve around producing very local content. And around the world, the appeal of global giants, like Disney and Sony Pictures, cannot be denied. Spreading content across as many platforms as possible is motivating players to introduce PC and mobile phone-based video offerings that complement their telco TV offerings.

This report discusses where telco TV services are growing, who is providing telco TV, how successful they have been to date, and what types of services are being offered. Worldwide five-year forecasts for subscribers and subscription revenues based on ARPU are included.

Highlights:

• Telco TV subscribers will grow five-fold to 71.6 million worldwide by 2012.
• Quadruple-, double-, and single-play packages are joining triple-play offerings.
• Interactive and convergence features linking TVs with PCs and mobile phones are emerging.
• Content remains king and is at the same time going international, ethnic, and local.

Who Will be Interested in This Report?

• Telco TV service providers
• Cable, satellite, and terrestrial TV service providers
• Telco TV set-top box makers
• Cable, satellite, and terrestrial TV set-top box makers
• All set-top box chip makers

What Questions Does This Report Answer?

• What are the annual subscriber and revenue numbers from telco TV services annually over the next five years?
• What have been the key developments over the past year in all countries throughout the world that offer telco TV services?

Methodology: The discussion in this report addresses the deployments of digital TV over DSL and next-generation networks, such as fiber-to-the home, around the world. These video services include broadcast TV and entertainment-on-demand that are received on a TV set without going through a PC. Many of them use IP, but not all, so rather than IPTV, In-Stat refers to these services as telco TV. We use the term telco to refer to companies deploying telecommunications services, as well as video services. While often these are incumbent telcos, other players may include Internet service providers, competitive local exchange operators, or utility companies building fiber networks.

Research methodologies include the following:

• Phone and email interviews with telcos, headend equipment vendors, network infrastructure vendors, content security vendors, VOD-server vendors, set-top box vendors, and middleware vendors.
• Analysis of telephone company financial reports.
• Analysis of product literature from telephone companies and equipment suppliers.
• Analysis of In-Stat proprietary market information and verification with other industry analysts.
• Secondary information from press releases, newsletters, and trade magazines.

The numbers in this report are calculated at a higher precision than those shown. As a result, some of the numbers may not calculate exactly due to rounding.

Currency conversions are provided simply for perspective on the relative costs of services around the world. These conversions are based on a snapshot of the currency exchange rate and are, therefore, subject to fluctuations on a day-to-day basis.