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.

“The IPTV market is still in early development," states Bob Larribeau, MRG Sr. Analyst, "so it is prone to unpredictable market dynamics." Some of the sector highlights include surprises: In the Middleware sector, Microsoft joined forces with Alcatel, winning long-term contracts with SBC in the US. In Set-top Boxes, while competition remains balanced among multiple suppliers, such as Motorola, Pace, Amino, Kreatel, i3 and others, Yuxing gained strength in Asia based on its deployment in PCCW/Hong Kong. In VOD Servers, while Kasenna and Bitband maintained leadership in North America and Europe, respectively, Entone won a big contract with PCCW (Hong Kong), which strengthened its position in China.

In Video Headend systems, Tut and Harmonic both maintained strong positions in North America and other markets, while Optibase and Tandberg captured increasing shares in Europe, Asia and North America. However, the Video Headend selections by SBC and BellSouth in the US, expected in 2005, can greatly impact leadership in this segment as well.

In Access Hardware, while Motorola maintained dominance in small U.S. independent telcos, its global market position slipped due in part to the industry trend towards Gigabit Ethernet/IP and away from its ATM technology. In the Content Protection sector, Widevine has taken a strong position in Asia and North America, while Via Access is doing well with its deployment in France Telecom.

The full IP TV Market Leader Report--March 2005 is available for $3,040 (single printed version) and for $3,995 (Departmental PDF License); or is included at no cost as part of the IPTV Tracking Service Subscription. For more information about a Corporate License or IPTV Subscription, contact rsmith@mrgco.com, or call Rob Smith, 408-524-9767 at MRG (Multimedia Research Group, Inc.) in Sunnyvale, CA, USA.