The continued growth of the global IPTV industry, specifically in Europe, Asia and North America, hinges upon the misunderstood "Middleware" that glues together the many working parts of the IPTV end-to-end system. "Without flexible middleware that can easily and predictably increase the number of subscribers and the breadth of services, IPTV operators will not sustain long-term growth or stability," states Steve Hawley, MRG Sr. Analyst. "Middleware can make or break the success of an IPTV service."

Although "fast channel change" is discussed, it is only one of many issues reviewed in this definitive report. "Growing their IPTV services from the basic stage, through intermediate, advanced and eventually, the 'converged' stage (where video, wireless and wireline services are all integrated) is what IPTV operators really need to accomplish -- all within carefully defined bandwidth and financial budgets," states Len Feldman, Director of IPTV Analysis for MRG. "This report shows how to accomplish this either with existing or new middleware."

Based on actual deployed subscribers, Thomson, Cascade, Alcatel-Lucent (MiViewTV), UTStarcom and Nokia Siemens Networks (Myrio) ranked in the top five globally. Microsoft Mediaroom (ex-IPTV Edition) ranked last out of fourteen IPTV companies, indicating continued scaling problems with its middleware using Microsoft-required technologies. The report objectively guides IPTV operators through the platform capabilities and technical considerations to help them identify the middleware best matching their service requirements, by comparing the partnerships, feature-function support, and the number of servers required for supporting 30,000, 300,000, 1 million and more subscribers for the fourteen vendors. Also included are detailed profiles of these vendors, their products and middleware partnerships, and a case study of how Verizon switched its middleware supplier for its IPTV/RF hybrid-service.

"The middleware required to support basic IPTV services is very different from that of an advanced-level service," states Hawley. "MRG's study will help IPTV operators of any size to make the right middleware decisions."