(15 November 2005 1:00 pm)

MUMBAI: IPTV service revenue, subscribers, and capital expenditures are increasing rapidly, says a new report by analyst firm Infonetics Research, the US-based international market research and consulting firm specialising in data networking and telecom.

Worldwide IPTV service revenue will skyrocket to over $44 billion in 2009, according to the report. DSL providers account for the bulk of service revenue now, but cable broadband providers will also migrate to all-IP triple-play services in the next few years, possibly offering wireless services as well.

Service providers anticipate big payoffs from IPTV, judging from the significant investments they are making. In 2004, service providers worldwide spent $304 million on IPTV-related services infrastructure, growing to almost $4.5 billion in 2009 as providers look to IPTV services as the means of raising ARPU from a near-saturated broadband subscriber base, states an official release.

"Service providers have been investing in IP DSLAMs, broadband edge routers, and aggregation switches to prepare for IPTV in the network infrastructure layer, but, are having to make significant investments in the services layer too, adding video on demand servers, encoders, and headend equipment as well," Infonetics Research analyst and lead author of the report, Richard Webb, said. "But the biggest decision they face right now is who to choose as a middleware partner."

IPTV subscribers are increasing briskly as well, topping 53 million worldwide in 2009. Subscriber growth is strong in all regions, especially in Asia Pacific, where faster forms of DSL like VDSL and ADSL2/2+ are stimulating subscriber growth.

"Service providers in Asia Pacific and EMEA, especially PCCW in Hong Kong and FastWeb in Italy, and independent operators in North America like SureWest, are already experiencing significant IPTV subscriber growth," directing analyst for broadband and IPTV at Infonetics Research, Jeff Heynen, noted.

"We expect SBC, Verizon, BT, and other large providers to successfully conquer the technical and marketing hurdles before them, and when they do, their IPTV subscriber figures will increase substantially year-over-year."

Growth Highlights

Worldwide IPTV service revenue will grow to over $44 billion in 2009.

IPTV services infrastructure capex will grow 1,377 per cent, from $304 million to close to $4.5 billion.

The number of IPTV subscribers worldwide will grow to 53.7 million in 2009.

The number of IPTV subscribers in North America will increase 12,985 per cent between 2004 and 2009.

Infonetics' report analyses the fundamental drivers, growth areas, and technologies gaining the most traction in the market, tracking IPTV service infrastructure capex, IPTV service revenue, and IPTV subscribers. The report includes worldwide and regional market size, analysis, and revenue, capex, and subscriber forecasts through 2009 for North America, EMEA, Asia Pacific, CALA, and worldwide.