Flouting the recession, the world iPTV market posted encouraging growth at a time when most other industry sectors were preoccupied with paranoid risk aversion and sensitivity over declining consumer spends. As the change in consumer TV viewing habits continue unabated, with the average time spent on watching TV shows over the Internet increasing by the year, iPTV market has successfully emerged into a recession buster. Value of iPTV subscriptions and volume of subscribers continued to grow during the period 2007 through 2010. Sturdy demand for iPTV services not surprisingly translated into sturdier gains in the iPTV systems market with sales of Set-Top Boxes, Access Systems, Video Headend Equipment, and Middleware, among others posting gains. Few of the factors widely opined to have shielded the iPTV market from the downturn is the level of broadband penetration and the scale of innovative yet affordable service bundling strategies, creative service offerings including on-demand services and channel diversity. Broadband penetration especially has helped the market sustain its growth despite the recession, which ironically pushed up broadband penetration rates, especially in the United States.

Reduction in household wealth, falling incomes, and reduced ability to spend, interestingly, has resulted in people spending precious dollars on cheaper at home entertainment, which is now a consumer staple. From virtual employment opportunities to social networking and streamed Internet television services, financial hardships have encouraged greater appreciation of returns on investments on broadband at the household level. A key beneficiary of this change in consumer behavior has been the iPTV market, which posted strong increases in real numbers as against the growth rates, since internet protocol television services are the cheapest forms of home entertainment and the most desirable option during a credit crunch. Nevertheless, although resilient, the iPTV market is not completely recession proof and the temporary deceleration in growth momentum is undeniable. Although healthy with double-digit year on year gains, growth momentum in iPTV service adoption rates weakened during the year 2008, as reflected by the sagging growth in new subscriptions, and service revenues. The deceleration was especially pronounced in North America, and Western Europe, and largely attributable to the recession induced cost cutting by households faced with shrinking disposable incomes.

The youngest of the pay-TV technologies, iPTV will continue to witness growth stabilizing, with year on year gains being smaller than the peak, which occurred during the years 2006 and 2007. This is largely because of advancing market maturity as developed markets hit the early maturity phase. Future growth hinges onto greater penetration of telcos into video business. Future growth in the iPTV market hinges onto greater penetration of telcos into video business. Growing craze for low-cost yet creative bundled packages, combining iPTV with telephony and data communications will contribute to growth in the iPTV market. The combination of competitively priced and compelling triple-play offerings, including VOD, is expected to win market share for these operators, despite unresolved content and technical issues. Increasing broadband penetration across the globe and greater bandwidth speeds will only help drive iPTV adoption further in emerging markets in the years to come. Adoption of broadband will be especially driven by the promise of greater bandwidth speeds and faster access, and accelerated pace of new fiber deployments. Deployment of new fiber lines in particular will favor iPTV providers.

Developments in power management, greater acceptance of open software platforms, and growing support for new video technologies will additionally boost IPTV service adoption over the next few years. Advancements in WiMAX deployments and mobile broadband also augurs well for the future of this market. Growing craze for low-cost yet creative bundled packages, combining iPTV with telephony and data communications will contribute to growth in the iPTV market. The combination of competitively priced and compelling triple-play offerings, including VOD, is expected to win market share for these operators, despite unresolved content and technical issues. Increasing broadband penetration across the globe and greater bandwidth speeds will only help drive iPTV adoption further in emerging markets in the years to come. Adoption of broadband will be especially driven by the promise of greater bandwidth speeds and faster access, and accelerated pace of new fiber deployments. Deployment of new fiber lines, which has already increased to over 50 million across the globe by 2008, in particular will favor iPTV providers. Developments in power management, greater acceptance of open software platforms, and growing support for new video technologies will additionally boost IPTV service adoption over the next few years. Advancements in WiMAX deployments and mobile broadband also augurs well for the future of this market.

As stated by the new market research report, Set-Top Boxes market continues to remain the largest segment within the global iPTV systems market. Availability of low-cost retail STBs has and will continue to drive demand for STB market. Access Systems market is another prominent segment within the iPTV systems market, with sales growing at a CAGR of about 30.1% over the analysis period.

Major players in the marketplace include Key iPTV Carriers/Operators such as AT&T Inc, Belgacom, Bell Canada Enterprise Inc, BT Group plc, China Telecom Corporation Limited, Comcast Corporation, Deutsche Telekom AG, FastWeb TV, France Telecom SA, PCCW Limited, Qwest Communications International Inc., Telecom Italia SpA, Verizon Communications Inc and Key iPTV Vendors/System Providers such as Alcatel-Lucent SA, Cisco Systems, Inc, ECI Telecom Ltd, Entone, Inc, Envivio, Inc, Microsoft Corporation, Motorola Inc., NEC Corporation, Orca Interactive Ltd., Sprint Nextel Corporation, Widevine Technologies, Inc., Viaccess S.A., among others.

The research report titled "iPTV: A Global Strategic Business Report" announced by Global Industry Analysts, Inc., provides a comprehensive review of market trends, recent developments, mergers, acquisitions, profiles of major players and other strategic industry activities. Analysis is presented for major geographic markets such as US, Canada, Europe (France, Germany, Italy, the UK, Spain, Russia, and Rest of Europe), and Asia-Pacific (China and Rest of Asia-Pacific) and Rest of World. Data is analyzed in both in terms of number of subscribers and annual service revenues. The report also analyzes global iPTV market by systems, such as, Set-Top Boxes, Access Systems, Video Headend Equipment, Video-on-Demand, Middleware, Content Protection and System Integration.