This year's IPTV World Forum is just two weeks away, with London's Olympia set to once again host the world's leading industry event for hybrid, IP and connected TV services - and the exhibition is free to attend.

The number of homes worldwide receiving IPTV services will increase from 26mn at the end of 2009 to 70mn by the end of 2014, according to a recent report from Informa Telecoms & Media, whilst revenues are also expected to climb steeply.  Much of the anticipated growth is expected to come from the Asia-Pacific region, which is predicted to account for 28mn of the world's IPTV subscribers by 2014, at which time China is expected to become the world's leading market with 13.7mn subscribers.

This year's IPTV World Forum event will take place in London's Olympia on March 23rd-25th, with the conference sessions to feature presentations from 180 speakers, including 120 content and service providers from 30 different countries.  Hybrid delivery methods will be the focus for Day One of the conference keynotes, while "traditional" IPTV is the focus for Day Two, and OTT/broadband TV is under scrutiny during Day Three of the conference.

Conference speakers confirmed for the event include: Richard Halton, Director of IPTV at the BBC; Frédéric Tapissier, Manager of Technology Studies and Industry Partnerships at French broadcaster TF1, President of the Technical Committee of the France HD Forum and founding member of the HbbTV initiative; Dr. Tzu -Han Huang, Head of IPTV Business at Chunghwa Telecom; Richard Young, Head of Business Development at BT; Peter Hill, Vice President of Video and Converged Services at AT&T Labs; Pierre Jean Sebert, CEO of SeeSaw; Terry Denson, Vice President of Programming and Marketing at Verizon; Dieter Engel, Senior Vice President of Product Development and Media Services at Deutsche Telekom; and Stephen Nutall, Group Commercial Director and board member of Sky.

With over 5,600 visitors from 81 countries attending the event in 2009, and current visitor pre-registrations tracking ahead of this time last year, IPTV World Forum 2010 is widely expected to be even bigger and include the complete IP&TV ecosystem.

The IPTV World Series Awards ceremony will also be held on the evening of March 23rd in the Royal Garden Hotel London at 7pm.  This gala dinner event celebrates excellence from all corners of the worldwide IPTV industry, with 11 awards to be presented this year.

For more information on the IPTV World Forum 2010 (www.iptv-forum.com) and to register, please click here