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IPTV middleware equipment to see heavy replacement soon: Infonetics Research

By Raju Shanbhag, TMCnet Contributing Editor

According to a report by Infonetics Research (News - Alert), a communications market research firm, the combined market for Internet protocol television (IPTV) and switched digital video (SDV) equipment has grown up by 12 percent sequentially in the first quarter of year 2008, to become $1.3 billion globally.

 

The report, named ‘IPTV (News - Alert) and Switched Digital Video Equipment, Services, and Subscribers’, increasing numbers of service providers are launching new IPTV networks or expanding existing networks to support more subscribers, hence contributing to the speedy growth in overall revenue of the market. The cable MSOs introducing switched video capabilities into their digital TV networks to increase the bandwidth and provide more high definition (HD) content to their subscribers are also playing their part in the growth, the report says.

 

Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for IPTV, Infonetics Research, said that while most of the segments tracked by Infonetics in the IPTV market are seeing consistent quarterly growth, IPTV middleware is going to be an especially interesting segment to watch. Heynen added that the company expects an IPTV middleware spending spree over the next few quarters because a lot of the early IPTV service providers are going to have to replace their IPTV middleware with a more robust solution to replace their initial generation deployments.

 

Apart from making a number of other statements about the market, the report forecasts that the number of IPTV subscribers will hit 93 million by 2011 globally. It reveals that the IP set-top box revenue grew by 10 percent in the first quarter of 2008 over last quarter of 2007.

 

The report claims that Motorola (News - Alert) still leads the worldwide IP set-top box (STB) market, although during this quarter, its closest competitors have fared quite well, hence reducing Motorola's lead.

 

The report also says that global hybrid IP/over-the-air STB market share is lead by ADB in the first quarter 2008, whereas Cablevision, the first MSO to provide switched digital video is soon going be followed by other MSOs in North America, and further in Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMEA) and Asia Pacific (APAC) too, for offering the service to the consumers.

 

According to the report, France is still the center of IPTV activity, as Orange, Free, and

neuf are all trying hard to increase their share of IPTV subscribers.

   

 

The report by Infonetics provides market size, market share, and forecasts for IPTV equipment, video on demand (VOD) and streaming content servers, IP video encoders, universal edge QAMs, IPTV middleware and content delivery platforms, and IP STBs.

 

Infonetics Research is a company engaged in communications market research, that tracks a wide range of service provider, product manufacturer, and enterprise and SMB markets, including network security, enterprise voice, unified communications, broadband networks, IPTV, IP video, mobile TV, optical networks, WiMAX, FMC, VoIP, and IMS.

 

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