by: Lynette Webb
I recently had to do some research into the status of IPTV in Western Europe. One of the more credible estimates for IPTV penetration I came across was provided by Dittberner, a specialist telecoms research house.
In a January 2007 article telephonyonline.com/iptv/marketing/usa_iptv_ten_010207/ they estimated that there were 2.7 million IPTV subscribers worldwide (as of end Q3 2006), 68% of which were in Western Europe and 28% in Asia. France is the biggest market worldwide for IPTV, with almost 900k subscribers, representing one third of the worldwide total. Hong Kong is the second largest, with the largest Hong Kong IPTV supplier, PCCW, having 638,000 subs in Q3 2006.
It’s fascinating to me how France is taking the European lead in a number of specific digital fields – IPTV, blogging, arguably even mobile TV (where if they’re not the leaders, they’re certainly in the leading pack). In terms of IPTV, a big reason it took off was because of the different regulations between IPTV and ‘traditional’ distribution means, and also the success of the bundling approach (combining broadband, TV, phone, etc). Even though the UK is Europe’s oldest IPTV market, with Homechoice having launched in London back in 2000, it never really got traction due to the established competition from Sky.
Image from Flickr CC www.flickr.com/photos/franckandys/287121606/ thanks to Franckandys.
Original Post: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lynetter/366061416/
