A new market forecast from Ireland’s Research and Markets predicts massive growth for Internet-delivered television—or IPTV—services by 2010, accounting for more than 53 million subscribers and revenue of $38 billion worldwide by the year 2009.
The forecast is basically in line with forward-looking analysis from other firms—for instance, iSuppli recently predicted 63 million IPTV users by 2010—but comes with a new twist. While the U.S. and Europe will still lead the IPTV industry on a revenue-per-subscriber basis, Research and Markets is betting in the long run the leaders in IPTV adoption will be in the Asia Pacific region, with China’s rapid urbanization positioning it to make it a leader in the technology. The firm believes the United States will be slow to adopt IPTV, in part because of low consumer awareness and the easy availability of existing pay-TV solutions. Further, existing pay-TV services in the U.S. have long been engaged in price wars to attract and retain customers, making it difficult for IPTV to enter the market at an attractive price point. And, as Research and Market notes, cost is easily the single most important factor in selecting pay TV services amongst consumers in all countries and age groups.
