IPTV surges as broadband passses 500 million mark
Joseph O'Halloran ©RapidTVNews | 20-09-2010
Any lingering doubts as to the potential of broadband networks to support services such as IPTV and OTT will likely have been diminished further with the news that the number of global broadband lines passed the 500 million mark in July 2010.
The milestone was revealed by Broadband Forum in its Broadband and IPTV Industry Update, highlighting research by industry analysts Point Topic.
Essentially the data shows that global broadband subscribers reached 498 million lines (497,768,162) by the end of June 2010, representing a 2.63% growth in the quarter and 11.99% in the last 12 months to end of Q2 2010.
Pot Topic also revealed strong growth for IPTV in the second quarter of 2010, with 2.3 million subscribers added in that time period, adding up to a total IPTV universe of 38.5 million users. The market research firms calculates that such growth means that 7.7% o fall broadband lines carry IPTV service, no change since Q1 2010.
Europe remains the most established region for IPTV with almost 19 million subscribers. Half of these are to be found in France where very high speed broadband connections are the norm. However in what will be a hugely interesting trend s, China, including Hong Kong and Macau, boasted more new IPTV sign ups in Q2 2010 to leave it with over 6.7 million IPTV subscribers pushing the US with 6.5 million into third place.
"IPTV has seen a steady quarter this time. Most IPTV markets have not reached saturation, so there is plenty more room for growth. Although the second quarter of 2010 doesn't quite match the same period last year there is reason for particular optimism in Asia and North America. As more and more consumers switch to fibre for their broadband we will see the numbers of IPTV subscribers climbing in those markets where FTTx deployment is powering ahead," said Oliver Johnson, CEO of Point Topic.
