WebsEdge has outlined upcoming key industry milestones that will drive the uptake of IPTV across America during 2008. There are three key elements surrounding the provision of IPTV to consumers, companies, and organizations throughout the United States: the capacity and speed of the network to individual premises, relevant and quality content to be viewed and a functional online source for viewers to access the video content.

The following are the areas that will see the most change over the course of 2008:

Fiber Networks

The past twelve months witnessed telecommunication providers across America making a big push to bulk up their fiber networks to enable faster IP communications and acceptable packet transfer for better quality video streaming. The debate of how far to extend fiber, be it to the node (FTTN), curb, building, or home (FTTP), continued and has slowed the progress of branching the high speed access to more viewers in the US. 2008 should see this dispute settled, allowing fiber networks to grow throughout the country, thereby speeding up online connections and simultaneously accelerating the adoption of IPTV by American households.

Online Video Sites

2007 proved to be an innovative year for online video sites, which worked to provide new ways to distribute online media. Data compression technology made great strides, allowing websites to offer live streaming feeds in a bid to gain more viewers. Future improvements in video quality also means that packet loss will become less of an issue.

Similarly, video hosting sites proved to be more popular than ever, allowing online media to extend beyond short viral videos to full-length television programs and even downloadable movies. Pay-per-download video sales were still maturing in 2007 along with advertisement supported videos, but increased demand is expected in the coming year along with the increased popularity of online video rentals. Standard video rentals, meanwhile, will continue their steady decline over 2008.

Television Networks

2007 was an especially demanding year for traditional television networks, as they struggled to make their programming available via the web to keep up with consumer appetite for online content. The networks experimented with a variety of business models including expensive pay per episode systems and video ad-supported viewing systems. None of these solutions have proved to be entirely well received by viewers, but as 2008 rolls on the networks will have more opportunities to work out the kinks.

User Generated Video

Although industry professionals can take credit for the technical innovations in IPTV over 2007, it was in fact end users who continued to steal the limelight. As 2006 ended with Time choosing “You” as its Person of the Year, 2007 witnessed the stellar growth in User Generated Content (UGC) thanks in part to YouTube’s exponential growth in popularity. In 2008 we will see improvements in UGC, including easier uploads, more online editing systems, and more interactivity through mobile devices. With the growth in UGC proving to be a primary social communication tool, businesses will take notice to the trend and a greater number of organizations will use IPTV to communicate with their stakeholders. In light of the growing demand of IPTV for business use there will be a steep increase in Professionally Generated Content, content generated by professionals, organizations, communities and companies.

The rapid rise of UGC has undoubtedly had a revolutionary impact, but as high speed internet improves, viewers will expect higher image quality and improved production values. Further, as HD video makes its way into IPTV, UGC will struggle to keep up bringing more PGC video production in its wake.

As the fiber network extends, and hardware evolves, video quality will continue to enjoy considerable improvements, bringing the spotlight to bear on IPTV over 2008.