An analysis of the top 75 media economies across North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific by the leading media information provider SNL Kagan, evidences strong growth prospects for IPTV.

The analysis notes that IPTV adoption has increased at a 92.4% compound annual growth rate over the past six years and forecast that over the next four years:

• Western Europe will continue to lead the world in IPTV subscriptions, reaching 26.7 million households by 2014.
• China will become the second largest IPTV market, reaching 12.4 million IPTV subscribers by 2014 and pushing the U.S. into third place.
• Latin America and Eastern Europe will see subscriber increases at respective 114% and 24.4% compound annual growth rates between 2010 and 2014.
• IPTV video service revenues will grow from $12.9 billion in 2010 to $27 billion in 2014, equal to 11% of global pay-TV revenues.

The global move towards IPTV service adoption is being driven by a handful of telcos, with the top five operators accounting for 44.3% of the global IPTV subscriber base at year-end 2010.

In the U.K., BT is well-positioned for strong growth, due to BT Vision’s adoption of an innovative hybrid IPTV/DTT technology that leverages the U.K.’s popular Freeview DTT service.