Asian telcos likely to dominate IPTV

Telecom providers around the world will capture about 32 million video users by the end of 2009, according to a report today from In-Stat.

That number is an exponential jump from the 1.6 million telco TV users that were subscribing at the end of 2004, though most of the growth will come in Asia. In fact, by 2009, Asian carriers will account for more than half of the 32 million, said Michelle Abraham, In-Stat analyst.

In the U.S., large carriers such as Verizon and SBC will generate a healthy number of subscribers, but franchise regulations or the lack thereof will determine the pace at which they grow. And while the report doesn’t delve into the penetration rates that telcos can expect, Abraham said that in some instances carriers should be able to become significant players in the pay TV landscape.

“In some communities I can see where they’d get more than 30%, but it really depends on who the competition is in that territory,” she said. “Will all [consumers] switch to the video service? It all depends on what’s being offered. If they’re getting Sunday NFL Ticket from DirecTV I’d say not, but it’s going to depend.”

The vendor segment is guaranteed to grow. According to the report, "Telco TV In Mass Deployment Phase,” broadcast TV content processing, on-demand content processing, content security, and middleware revenues for telco TV will surpass $600 million in 2009.