APAC To Drive IPTV Growth: Study

The global IPTV subscriptions are expected to see a 70-percent growth, reaching the 200-million subscriber figure in the next five years, says a recent study conducted by Allied Business Intelligence Inc. (ABI). Asia-Pacific will drive this IPTV adoption with an estimated 100-percent growth over the next five years, adds the study.

Today, less than 15 percent (28.5 million) of the pay-TV subscribers in the APAC region subscribe to high-definition services. But a high focus on digitization in these countries is expected to grow these services massively in the years to come. The growth, the study says, will depend mainly on China, India, and the other countries with low pay-TV penetration such as Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The study also says that the number of global pay-TV subscribers will become 853.5 million at the end of 2012, of which 116 million will be IPTV subscribers. Asia-Pacific is likely to have more than 60 percent of the total net additions in 2012.

In India, IPTV services are offered by operators like Bharti Airtel Ltd., Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL), Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL) and Reliance Communications Ltd. Last year, a report by Pyramid Research had predicted that the IPTV customer base in India will become more than 1.7 million by 2013. (See IPTV Set for Rapid Growth in India.)

IPTV adoption will get a fillip from the fact that countries like India and China are experiencing nationwide cable-TV digitization, which will increase the consumer preference for HD services in the future. Unfortunately, the IPTV experience is not that great yet in India and the growth is marred by challenges such as high installation cost, poor broadband penetration, incomplete infrastructure and an unimpressive marketing push by telecom companies to promote the technology, especially the direct-to-home (DTH) service.

Only the state-owned incumbents like BSNL and MTNL are marketing IPTV aggressively in the country. They recently collaborated to announce the 'MyWay' IPTV service, which is considered to be the biggest IPTV launch in the country. (See MyWay's IPTV a Turn Off.)

Jatinder Singh, Principal Correspondent, Light Reading India