The road to converged IPTV gets much smoother as MRG's new IPTV infrastructure and service report provides a new roadmap for IPTV Operators to use in competing with Cable, Satellite and even Internet Video. By categorizing multi-platform services into functional groups including Time-shifting, Place-shifting, Personalization, and Socialization, the report provides numerous examples of what new services may look like on different platforms and regions of the world.

"The Millennial generation already expects video, personal communications and messaging services wherever they are, regardless of device or network," said Steve Hawley, Sr. IPTV Analyst, Multimedia Research Group, Inc. "Operators that aren't transforming their service platforms to serve these 'digital natives' are already at a disadvantage." Over 180 companies and IPTV Operators are featured in this report, including Operators Deutsche Telecom, PCCW, Orange, and many others; and Vendors Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, IBM, HP, Integra5, NSN, Motorola, and many others. Real-world examples also are examined. One example shows how theater tickets are purchased on a home set-top box with the "ticket" transferred to a barcode on the consumer's mobile phone. This can only happen if the Operator has control of both platforms.

"The purpose of this report was to identify if, when and how IPTV Operators would move to advanced and converged (multi-platform) services, and measuring the use of IMS and alternative technologies," states Gary Schultz, President of MRG, Inc. "The reality we discovered is that the interim steps to converged services -- de-siloization and unification of elements of the back office -- were already becoming vehicles to decrease OpEx and improve customer loyalty." This parallels the gains achieved by Operators' adding QoS and QoE components (as covered in earlier MRG reports), enabling them to upgrade their infrastructure on a continuum of increased customer satisfaction, revenue and customer retention. Judicious use of Service Delivery Platforms, Next Generation Networks and IP Multimedia Subsystems also is key to intelligent infrastructure upgrades while keeping control of CapEx.

The 298-page report, IPTV, IMS and the Emergence of Multi-Service Convergence, is now available.