IPTV defies recession
February 8, 2011
Flouting the recession, the world IPTV market posted encouraging growth according to Global Industry Analysts. Value of IPTV subscriptions and volume of subscribers continued to grow during the period 2007 through 2010.
These gains translated into growth in the IPTV systems market with sales of Set-Top Boxes, Access Systems, Video Headend Equipment, and Middleware.
Reduction in household wealth, falling incomes, and reduced ability to spend, interestingly, has resulted in people spending precious dollars on cheaper at home entertainment, which is now a consumer staple. From virtual employment opportunities to social networking and streamed Internet television services, financial hardships have encouraged greater appreciation of returns on investments on broadband at the household level. A key beneficiary of this change in consumer behaviour has been the IPTV market, which posted strong increases in real numbers as against the growth rates, since they are the cheapest forms of home entertainment and the most desirable option during a credit crunch.
Nevertheless, although resilient, the IPTV market is not completely recession proof as reflected by the sagging growth in new subscriptions, and service revenues. The deceleration was especially pronounced in North America, and Western Europe, and largely attributable to the recession induced cost cutting by households faced with shrinking disposable incomes.
As stated by the new market research report, STB market continues to remain the largest segment within the global IPTV systems market. Availability of low-cost retail STBs has and will continue to drive demand for STB market. Access Systems market is another prominent segment within the iPTV systems market, with sales growing at a CAGR of about 30.1 per cent over the analysis period.
The research report titled “Internet Protocol Television (iPTV): A Global Strategic Business Report” announced by Global Industry Analysts, Inc., provides a comprehensive review of market trends, recent developments, mergers, acquisitions, profiles of major players and other strategic industry activities. Analysis is presented for major geographic markets such as US, Canada, Europe (France, Germany, Italy, the UK, Spain, Russia, and Rest of Europe), and Asia-Pacific (China and Rest of Asia-Pacific) and Rest of World. Data is analyzed in both in terms of number of subscribers and annual service revenues. The report also analyzes global iPTV market by systems, such as, Set-Top Boxes, Access Systems, Video Headend Equipment, Video-on-Demand, Middleware, Content Protection and System Integration.