The global IPTV market reached nearly 24mn IPTV subscribers by the end of the first quarter of this year, an increase of 9.77% from the previous quarter, according to the latest figures from industry body the Broadband Forum.

Growth was highest in Europe and North America, according to the findings, with Europe as a whole posting quarterly growth of nearly 10% and year-on-year growth of 56.2%.  Eastern Europe is described as "aggressively rolling out IPTV" with new services launched across the region, including in Poland, Czech Republic, Slovenia and Russia, and reached 1,158,673 subscribers by the end of last March.  Western Europe meanwhile reached 11,375,200 IPTV subscribers by the end of the first quarter of this year, up 9.72% on a quarterly basis and up 45.85% from March 2008.

“Growth is high in Eastern Europe because IPTV take up is still relatively low when compared to other regions such as North America and Asia Pacific,” said John Bonsell, senior analyst at Point Topic.  "This is good news for operators and subscribers, because there is plenty of potential for growth coupled with a wide range of IPTV services, so cost should remain low."

Broadband lines worldwide were found to have reached 429.2mn by the end of March 2009, with the first quarter of this year showing slightly higher growth than the previous three-month period.  Western Europe was found to have grown by 2.63% quarter-on-year to reach just over 108mn lines, while Eastern Europe showed a 5.75% improvement to reach well over 23.5mn lines.

In terms of technology, DSL was found to remain the most popular broadband access technology with a 64.62% market share, while cable came in next at 20.67%. Fibre grew by more than 3mn lines in the first three months of this year to give a 12.44% share of the access technology market, while wireless showed a "healthy proportionate increase" of over 1mn lines to reach 5.58mn by the end of March, giving a 1.3% share.