IPTV Deployments Featured Article

ISuppli: IPTV Growing but Satellite TV Safe

By Divya Narain, TMCnet Contributing Editor

According to research firm iSuppli Corp, the subscribers of Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) in the Americas region have quadrupled in 2007. Nevertheless, IPTV (News - Alert) is not encroaching into the satellite television market -at least for now. 

 

The year 2007 witnessed a 257 percent rise in the number of IPTV subscribers in North and South America. The figure exploded from 501,000 in 2006 to 1.8 million in 2007. Most of the growth was seen in North America. U.S. telcos and leading IPTV providers Verizon (News - Alert) and AT&T totaled almost 1.2 million subscribers by the end of the year. While AT&T’s U-Verse service amounted to 231,000, Verizon accounted for 943,000 subscribers.

 

On the other hand, satellite subscribers in North and South America climbed to 39.5 million in 2007, up from 36.3 million in 2006. DirecTV (News - Alert) and EchoStar, the leading North American satellite television providers, increased their subscriber base by 2.1 million.

 

“The early hypothesis was that IPTV subscribers would ‘come out of the hide’ of the satellite companies in North America,” said Pamela Tufegdzic, multimedia analyst at iSuppli. “However, over the past four quarters, satellite subscriber numbers have continued to grow in the region. The initial results show that IPTV subscribers in the United States still are mostly net additions to the pay-television market.”

 

The satellite television industry has managed to fend off the effect of IPTV till now. But iSuppli predicts that the going will get tough for satellite television in 2008.

 

“Satellite providers are in a bit of a squeeze,” Tufegdzic said. “These companies previously partnered with the telcos to offer television service to compete with the bundled voice and video offerings from the cable providers. As they try to expand into IPTV, the satellite providers now find that a significant portion of their subscriber base of television subscribers is owned by the telcos.”

 

iSuppli has also predicted that the global IPTV market will grow to 82.6 million subscribers in 2011, up from slightly less than 10 million in 2007.

 

A key provider of technology value chain research and advisory services, iSuppli Corporation caters to the EMS, OEM and supplier communities in addition to servicing consumer electronics and media concerns. 

 

Divya Narain is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.

 

Don't forget to check out TMCnet’s White Paper Library, which provides a selection of in-depth information on relevant topics affecting the IP Communications industry. The library offers white papers, case studies and other documents which are free to registered users.

Internet Protocol (IP)	X
IP stands for Internet Protocol, a data-networking protocol developed throughout the 1980s. It is the established standard protocol for transmitting and receiving data in packets over the Internet. I...more

Internet Protocol Television (IPTV)	X
IPTV delivers a digital television service to subscribers via the Internet Protocol over a broadband connection....more