Infonetics Research releases the 1Q09 edition of its IPTV and Switched Digital Video Equipment, Services, and Subscribers report. Highlights follow. "All eyes are focused on video on-demand and streaming content servers as more and more programming moves to on-demand. VoD is rapidly becoming EoD (everything on-demand) as operators beef up their streaming server capacity to support not only HD VoD, but network and RS-DVR services, targeted advertising, and start-over services, all of which will become standard features for video providers. These changes will lead revenue for VoD and streaming content servers to triple between 2008 and 2013," said Jeff Heynen, Infonetics Research's Directing Analyst, Broadband and Video.

REPORT HIGHLIGHTS

• Service providers and cable operators paused spending on IPTV and switched digital video equipment in 1Q09, pushing worldwide sales down 11% sequentially to $1.0 billion
  • The pause in spending was caused mainly by macroeconomic conditions and a slowdown in AT&T U-Verse IPTV rollouts and Comcast SDV rollouts
  • The only world region to see growth in IPTV and SDV revenue in 1Q09 was Central and Latin America
• Year-over-year (from 1Q08 to 1Q09), worldwide vendor revenue for all IPTV and SDV equipment segments are in positive territory, from holding steady (IP video encoders) to explosive growth (universal edge QAMs)
• The overall market is expected to grow at a healthy pace over the next 4 quarters as service providers roll out new IPTV networks or expand existing networks and cable MSOs introduce switched video capabilities into their digital TV networks
• VoD servers are quickly transforming from solid-state based, centralized devices connected to a master storage library, to cheaper, flash-based memory in a switched architecture, led by BigBand, Cisco, Motorola, and Verivue
• The number of pure and hybrid IPTV subscribers more than doubled in 2008 to 26 million worldwide, and is expected to surge to 155 million by 2013
• IP set-top box vendor revenue is forecast to grow at an average of 14% annually between 2008 and 2013
• By 2013, telco service providers are expected to derive about $56 billion worldwide from IPTV services (not including mobile IPTV services)