Skip to main content

IPTV and Switched Digital Video Slowdown

The Internet protocol television (IPTV) and switched digital video (SDV) equipment market increased 6 percent sequentially in 3Q08 to $1.4 billion, according to a market study by Infonetics Research.

In its latest report, Infonetics lowered its long-term IPTV and SDV forecast due to an expected slowdown in IPTV subscriber growth and a decrease in cable operators moving to switched digital video.

Annual overall growth will continue in the worldwide market through the downturn, but will grow in double-digit percentages rather than high triple-digit percentages, as it has in previous years.

"We still see growth coming from the telco IPTV sector because IPTV is one of the key ways telcos can hold on to their broadband subscribers and increase revenue per user, so providers will continue to roll out new networks or expand their existing networks," said Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for broadband and video at Infonetics Research.

Meanwhile, the cable switched digital video segment took a hit in the third quarter when Comcast slowed its SDV rollout and shifted its capex focus to DOCSIS 3.0 rollouts.

Still, cable MSOs will continue to introduce switched video capabilities into their digital TV networks, just at a slower pace than expected prior to the economic downturn -- which is forcing most families to rethink their entertainment budgets.

Highlights from the Infonetics study include:

- In 3Q08, IP set-top boxes (STBs) account for 70 percent of the total IPTV and SDV equipment revenue.

- IPTV middleware (content delivery platform) sales are up 21 percent in 3Q08, and video content protection software sales are up 14 percent.

- The competitive operator Iliad Group of France leads globally in the number of IPTV subscribers, with 3 million in 3Q08.

- North America is the leading region for total IPTV and SDV revenue, but Europe's developed economy keeps it in a close 2nd place.

Popular posts from this blog

Frontier AI Peaked. Here's What Comes Next

The prevailing narrative around artificial intelligence (AI) has been one of relentless scale. Bigger models, bigger clusters, bigger budgets. The assumption, largely unchallenged until recently, was that raw parameter count translated directly into competitive advantage. New research from Omdia suggests it's time to retire that assumption. According to the latest market study by Omdia, parameter growth in frontier AI models has slowed to around 5 percent annually since 2021, a stark contrast to the more than hundredfold expansion seen between 2019 and 2021. Enterprise AI Market Development For executives who have been making infrastructure and investment decisions based on the assumption that AI would keep demanding ever-larger, ever-more-expensive hardware, this finding deserves serious attention. The race to the top of the model size leaderboard has, at least for now, plateaued. Crucially, Omdia's analysts are not reading this as an AI winter. Alexander Harrowell, senior pri...