Sunday, March 28, 2010

IPTV Subscriptions to Reach 68 Million by End of 2014

According to forecasts from analyst firm Strategy Analytics, IPTV (News - Alert) subscriptions are poised to grow from more than 30 million in 2010 to 68 million by the end of 2014. The firm reported that Asia Pacific and Western Europe will lead in deployments. At a time, when industry leaders prepare to attend the IPTV World Forum in London this week, the findings have been announced.

“One constant theme we’ve seen in our multi-country survey work is a low perceived value-for-money among pay-tv subscribers,” said David Mercer, vice president of the Strategy Analytics (News - Alert) Digital Consumer Practice. “Service providers need to concentrate on coherently explaining IPTV’s value proposition -- something that few have been able to successfully achieve so far.”

IPTV needs to go beyond simply competing at par with other pay-tv platforms, said Strategy Analytics.

“Telcos have a deeply-ingrained ‘monopoly mindset,’” Ben Piper, director of the Strategy Analytics Multiplay Market Dynamics service, noted. “IPTV represents the first time they have ever been second to market, and building to well-established consumer expectations is no easy task. IPTV needs to do more than replicate what the cable companies are offering. To be successful, it needs to surpass it.”

In related news, Broadcast International (News - Alert), Inc. has announced that Steve Jones will speak at the upcoming IPTV World Forum in London, England on March 23-25, 2010.