The new worldwide IPTV Forecast from MRG, the only bi-annual IPTV report based on over 600 IPTV Operators worldwide in over 70 countries, confirms that the increased revenues of Telcos and IPTV Operators remain in positive financial territory, and are not negatively impacted by the global turmoil in the credit, oil and housing sectors. The new forecast, based on most recently verified subscriber and revenue growth data, shows IPTV subscribers growing from 24.4 million to 92.8 million 2008-2012; and service revenue totaling $37.1 billion by 2012, with CapEx growing to $5.5 billion. While Europe's subscriber size in 2012 will remain dominant, Asia's subscriber base will nearly equal Europe's in 2012, followed by North America.

comScore releases March 2008 data from the comScore Video Metrix service, indicating that U.S. Internet users viewed 11.5 billion online videos during the month, representing a 13-percent gain versus February and a 64-percent gain versus March 2007.

Google Sites Extends Lead in Online Video Market Share

In March, Google Sites once again ranked as the top U.S. video property with more than 4.3 billion videos viewed (38 percent share of all videos), gaining 2.6 share points versus the previous month. YouTube.com accounted for 98 percent of all videos viewed at Google Sites. Fox Interactive Media ranked second with 477 million videos (4.2 percent), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 328 million (2.9 percent) and Viacom Digital with 249 million (2.2 percent).

In the past five years, IPTV has grown from a handful of deployments by a few pioneering telcos and ISPs to an established part of the pay-TV landscape with services spanning the globe from Australia to the Ukraine. But now, according to ABI Research, this “adolescent” industry must find ways to create a distinct identity so it can continue to grow and prosper, with IPTV operators creating unique service offerings that are differentiated from the traditional video services of their key competitors.

Screen Digest examines the market for pay TV in 12 Central and Eastern European countries, and Russia. Eastern European Pay Television reveals that, driven by continued strong growth in both cable and satellite markets, total pay TV penetration will increase rapidly in the region from 40 per cent at the end of 2007 to 60 per cent by 2012 with a total of 63m homes subscribing to pay TV services. This impressive growth will be driven by a strong pay TV market in Russia which will account for 28m of the region’s pay TV subscribers by 2012.

Since 2004 the CEE country economies and Russia have enjoyed rapid expansion, growing at more than double the rate of markets in Western Europe. 2007 saw the market growing at its fastest rate, with 18 percent growth of total pay TV subscribers.

Yankee Group announces that there is a significant shift taking place in the advertising industry—cable and IPTV operators will lose out to internet video platforms in the competition for the incremental ad revenue that supports investments in interactive television. By the time cable and IPTV operators will be able to deliver interactivity to a large number of households, content owners and advertisers will have already made long-term interactive platform investments online.

According to the recently published Yankee Group Report, The High-Water Mark for Interactive Cable, digital and interactive advertising is the cornerstone for the infrastructure investments necessary to support interactive programming. Cable networks will continue to command large linear audiences and above-the-line advertising revenue, but cable operators will be limited in their ability to deliver interactive experiences that can compete with internet video.

The pay-TV market in Western Europe is generally considered to be mature, but the increasing deployment of IPTV services will see the market enjoy a modest rate of growth in the number of households subscribing to pay-TV services, according to the latest research published by Analysys Mason, the premier advisors on telecoms, IT and media.

According to the Analysys Mason report, Pay TV in Western Europe: market sizings and forecasts 2005–2013, the number of households subscribing to pay-TV services will increase at a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 3.2% from 90.6 million in 2007 to 109.2 million by the end of 2013.

The IMS Research study IPTV: A Global Market Analysis - 2008 Edition forecasts that, on a worldwide basis, shipments of IP set-top boxes will grow at a CAGR of 37.1% through the end of 2012. These shipments will represent revenues of $3 billion. IP + Digital Terrestrial hybrid STBs are expected to comprise 30% of shipments in 2012 with HD DVR boxes nearing 35%.

Research and Markets has announced the addition of "Triple Play: Building the converged network for IP, VoIP and IPTV" to their offering. “Triple Play” is a combination of Internet access, voice communication, and entertainment services such as IP television and video on demand.

The erosion of the traditional voice service, together with the ever-increasing competition between companies, is pushing the telecommunications industry towards a major shift in its business models. Customers want more services in a more flexible way. Today, this shift can only be carried out by offering converged services built around the Internet Protocol (IP). Triple Play, a bundle of voice, video, and data services for residential customers, is the basis of this new strategy.

Research and Markets has announced the addition of “IP Multicast with Applications to IPTV and Mobile DVB-H” to their offering.

This book provides a concise guide to current IP Multicast technology and its applications, with a focus on IPTV and Digital Video Broadcast-Handheld applications—areas of tremendous commercial interest. Traditional phone companies can use IP Multicast technology to deliver video services over their networks; cell phone companies can use it to stream video to handheld phones and PDAs; and many cable TV companies are considering upgrading to IP technology. In addition to applications in industries seeking to provide high-quality digital video and audio, there are numerous other practical uses: multi-site corporate videoconferencing; broad distribution of financial data, stock quotes, and news bulletins; database replication; software distribution; and content caching.

Research and Markets has announced the addition of The Advanced TV Advertising Market, 2008 (Strategic Focus) to their offering.

The broadcast sector is evolving. Broadband adoption, transforming consumption habits and convergence is creating a diverse landscape for entertainment consumption. Advertising continues to play a significant part in revenue generation, but as the drivers challenge traditional paradigms, there is considerable pressure to adapt to new business models using advanced technological solutions.

Synergy Research Group announces the availability of the Synergy 2007 IPTV Market Share report, which shows the overall IPTV equipment revenue, from the core of the network to the set-top box, growing aggressively at 47 percent year over year.

The Synergy study finds that Service Providers are making significant capital investments today to strategically position their network's capability to provide next generation television services. As Cable companies have successfully taken a bite out of the Service Provider's telephone and broadband Internet business, Service Providers are making the necessary investments to get a slice of the massive TV market.

The number of households worldwide using telco/IPTV services grew from 4.7 million in 2006 to exceed 14 million in 2007, according to TV Services in Europe: Update and Outlook, a new white paper by Parks Associates.

The white paper analyzes key television services and offers growth strategies and recommendations for providers worldwide and for Europe in particular. Europe experienced a growth rate of 250% between 2006 and 2007 for telco/IPTV services, defined as landline-based multichannel and on-demand video services provided by a telephone operator

A key recommendation from the paper is that operators should examine network and customer premise equipment upgrades for features and applications that can personalize the entire television experience and build customer loyalty.

TV Services in Europe: Update and Outlook highlights Europe's competitive market, including Digital Terrestrial Television, cable, satellite services, and telco/IPTV services.

There’s a content explosion happening on the Net. Hundreds of sites with user provided video. YouTube adds 150,000 clips daily. NetFlix boasts seven thousand on line movies --- More than the largest North American cable operators. Social media addicts spend more time on Facebook than they do on TV. Seventeen million users visit MySpace every day. Web 2.0 is changing the face of entertainment, and the world is leaning forward to join in.

TV is racing to catch up. And the guys that had the foresight to get into IPTV are finally poised to say “I told you so”. IPTV, built on the same platform and technologies that greased the wheels of the Internet, has the potential to revolutionize the TV experience.

But there's a problem.

The U.S. cable companies are facing increased competition from both satellite TV and Telco IPTV companies. TelecomView’s new report U.S. Cable: New Strategies for a Competitive World investigates core strategies that cable companies should implement to address this competition and continue on their growth path.

This new report discusses technology options such as analog reclamation, switched digital video, node splitting, and MPEG-4. It also discusses business options such as improving cable broadband data and cable telephony services as well as providing communications services to businesses.

The report details the thorny issues surrounding the cable companies’ efforts to enter the wireless business.

Research and Markets has announced the addition of IPTV Market Leaders Report - March 2008 to their offering. This IPTV Market Leaders Report identifies which IPTV systems and software companies (vendors) are leading each of the six IPTV markets globally and within the four regional markets (or twenty-four segments all totaled) tracked by the report. Market position is measured using estimates and actual numbers of active IPTV subscribers that are using (or being supported by) each company’s products for all product segments except the Video Headends. For the Video Headends we have measured market position using the reported number of IPTV channels that are to be provided using each company’s products. Since a Video Headend may support two thousand or two million subscribers, the number of channels is a much better measure of each company’s market position. These methodologies give a good measure of the relative position of each company, as well as, the prospects for future growth.