IPTV Growth Doubles in North America in 2008

IPTV Growth Doubles in North America in 2008

Last quarter growth -- at 19% -- is the world's largest

SAN JOSE, CAlif., March 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Broadband Forum today announced the latest IPTV and broadband statistics, showing that the North American IPTV market has more than doubled in size in 2008 -- with growth of 113 percent despite the global economic downturn.

The report, prepared for the Forum by industry analysts Point Topic (GBS database at http://point-topic.com/home/gbs/), also showed a very healthy 19 percent growth of IPTV inside the last quarter, well ahead of other IPTV-focused regions South and East Asia and Latin America, whose last quarter growth both showed 12 percent.

The IPTV figures -- announced by the Broadband Forum at today's opening day of IPTV World Forum in London -- come at the same time as world broadband statistics for 2008 show a 62.6 million line growth to 410.9 million lines. While growth slowed late in the year generally, compared to the same quarter in 2007, several countries showed improved performance in the third quarter of 2008, including France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Singapore and The Philippines.

IPTV global subscriber totals have now reached 21.7 million, which is an increase of 63 percent on the end of 2007 figures.

   IPTV subscribers per region        Region                 2007 Q4            2008 Q4   Western Europe            7,045,860         10,388,000   North America             1,774,671         3,835,544   South & East Asia         1,840,000         3,615,000   Asia-Pacific              2,199,828         3,082,182   Eastern Europe            465,223           884,466   Latin America             8,991             21,495   Middle East &    Africa                   10,000            10,000   Global Total              13,344,573        21,836,687   

Source: Data provided for the Broadband Forum by Point Topic (www.point-topic.com)

"During 2008, IPTV operators showed that TV over IP could be deployed on a large scale," said John Bonsell, a Senior Analyst with Point Topic. "That has been the case particularly in the USA."

As expected, due to the global economic situation, broadband growth slowed, however all countries experienced overall growth during the last year.

   Top ten broadband countries                      2007 Q4        2008 Q4   China           66,564,400     83,366,000   USA             69,964,758     79,074,123   Japan           28,425,700     30,325,900   Germany         19,897,616     23,425,150   France          15,555,068     17,503,518   UK              15,728,900     17,392,800   South Korea     14,709,998     15,474,931   Italy           10,860,650     12,170,080   Brazil          7,477,400      9,633,300   Canada          8,658,689      9,386,846   

Source: Data provided for the Broadband Forum by Point Topic (www.point-topic.com)

Regionally, over the last quarter, Latin America (7.55 percent), Eastern Europe (6.22 percent) and Middle East and Africa (4.76 percent) were the best percentage growth performers, although all regions continued to report growth of some extent.

   Region broadband view and growth           Region            2008 Q3        2008 Q4                             Total          Total        Growth   Western Europe         102,489,320    105,699,114      3.13%   South and East Asia    90,222,776     93,496,395       3.63%   North America          86,185,061     88,460,969       2.64%   Asia-Pacific           61,940,241     63,285,165       2.17%   Latin America          24,191,462     26,018,927       7.55%   Eastern Europe         20,671,116     21,956,239       6.22%   Middle East and    Africa                11,419,696     11,962,810       4.76%   

Source: Data provided for the Broadband Forum by Point Topic (www.point-topic.com)

In terms of technology, DSL continues to be the most popular broadband access technology, although fiber has grown twice as fast as either cable or DSL in the 12 months to Q4 2008. This should continue, given the number of new implementations and consumer and business demand for higher speeds. Value-added services such as IPTV are also proving to be strong drivers for FTTx uptake and have driven this technology through the 50 million mark worldwide.

"This report shows that despite the economic situation the world is facing, the demand for both broadband and IPTV continues to expand," said George Dobrowski, Chairman and President of the Broadband Forum.

"The Forum continues to drive broadband innovation, and with the recent release of BroadbandSuite 3.0, which provides new IPTV management and fibre integration tools, we continue to ensure that the industry has all the tools and specifications it needs to optimise networks and to capture the full potential of broadband worldwide."

For further information about the Broadband Forum and the BroadbandSuite 3.0 mentioned here, check out www.broadband-forum.org.

For further information please contact Chrissie Walker or Brian Dolby on +44 (0) 115 948 6901 or by email to chrissie@bcspr.co.uk or brian@bcspr.co.uk.

About the Broadband Forum

The Broadband Forum mission is to develop the full potential of broadband. Focused on home-to-core network and management solutions, our standards empower providers to achieve more with their broadband deployment. Established in 1994 as the ADSL Forum and later as the DSL Forum, the Broadband Forum has seen its work over the past 15 years evolve from addressing physical layer ADSL transport specifications to advanced transport and management specifications for all forms of broadband. The Broadband Forum's formal BroadbandSuite(TM) Release Program and all technical reports are publicly available at www.broadband-forum.org.

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Source: The Broadband Forum

CONTACT: Chrissie Walker, chrissie@bcspr.co.uk, or Brian Dolby,
brian@bcspr.co.uk, both of The Broadband Forum, +44-115-948-6901

Web Site: http://www.broadband-forum.org/
http://www.dslforum.org/
http://www.point-topic.com/

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Profile: International Entertainment