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IPTV 2005 - One Percent Market Penetration

New analysis from Point Topic shows how the IPTV market is developing in 2005. IPTV had almost 1.5 million subscribers by mid-2005, up from around 1 million paying customers at the beginning of the year.

Europe and Asia Pacific are the leading regions for IPTV, ahead of the Americas.

That represents subscriber growth of around 40 percent in the first sixth months of 2005. The main growth was in Hong Kong, China, France, Spain, Canada and the USA. This compares with a worldwide total of 97.1 million DSL lines at the same date, giving IPTV a penetration of about 1.5 percent.

From a worldwide perspective, the IPTV picture is varied. Hong Kong (441,000 subscribers as at 30 June 2005) is currently the only area where IPTV can boast significant market numbers.

Some key large markets like Korea and Germany have yet to start. In others IPTV is in trial phase like China (up to 100,000), serving niche operators as in the USA (200,000) and the UK (24,000) or slowly building subscriber numbers in more accomodating and mature markets like France (270,000).

This variety reflects the complexity of the business case for IPTV. For example, an IPTV offer is less attractive if there are proven existing pay-TV alternatives, such as cable or satellite (i.e. most developed nations). Regulation can also impact the development of IPTV. Korea has what is probably the world�s most advanced large scale broadband network, but regulators have delayed IPTV developments.

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