IPTV subscribers worldwide forecast to reach 38.4mn by 2012

December 11, 2007 – A new report from Informa Telecoms & Media forecasts that there will be “significant” growth in numbers of IPTV subscribers worldwide by 2012, increasing seven-fold from the end-2006 figure to reach 38.2mn.

The report, entitled “IPTV – A Global Analysis (3rd Edition)”, also predicts that global IPTV revenues generated from subscriptions and video on demand (VOD) services will increase from under US$1.5bn generated in 2006 to US$14.7bn by 2012, with US$13.6bn coming from subscription revenues and US$1.1bn from VOD revenues.

“In the shorter term we are forecasting 10.6mn IPTV households by the end of 2007, double the 2006 figure of 5.3mn,” said Adam Thomas, Media Research Manager for Informa.  “Much of the recent growth has come from service launches by European telcos, although US cablers are also starting to look anxiously over their shoulders at the success of U-verse and FiOS.”

China is expected to become the major IPTV market in terms of subscriber numbers, with 6.6mn homes receiving it as their primary TV service by the end of 2012, followed by the US with 4.8mn, France with 4.1mn and Japan with 3.1mn.  Hong Kong however is expected to retain leadership in terms of penetration rates with 46.7%, followed by France with 18.1%, Taiwan with 14.8% and Singapore with 10.5%.  The US is expected to lead in terms of revenues by 2012, with a total of US$3.096bn, followed by Japan with US$1.988bn, France with US$1.402bn and Italy with US$1.078bn.

The report also predicts that 3.1% of the world’s TV households will subscribe to an IPTV service by 2012, as operators continue to compete against cable, satellite and DTT.