Subscribers still paying despite allure of free over-the-top

Market research firm Infonetics Research today released excerpts from its Cable, Satellite, and IPTV Video Services and Subscribers report, which tracks the telco Internet protocol television (IPTV), cable video, and satellite video markets. The report highlights that worldwide revenue derived by providers of IPTV, cable video, and satellite video services grew to $240 billion in 2010, up 11% over 2009.

3D imaging, which adds depth to a 2D image, is receiving a lot of buzz and hype with an increasing number of 3D films being produced in a resurgence of interest from Hollywood studios. 3D has been popular in Hollywood at other times in the previous century, but the difference is that now, 3D viewing is possible in the home. As a result, the 3D TV set market is poised to grow dramatically in 2011—by almost 500%, according to In-Stat.

The UMTS Forum has predicted that voice and data traffic on mobile networks will grow more than 30-fold during the decade ahead. In a new report titled ‘Mobile traffic forecasts 2010-2020’, the 3G/4G industry body indicates that total annual traffic on mobile networks globally will reach 127 EB (Exabytes) in 2020. This represents a 33x increase compared with the 2010 figure.

Western Europe posted over 182m TV households at end-2010, 40% of which are watching TV via terrestrial platforms, 27% via CaTV, and about 26% through satellite, either free-to-air or through paid subscription. The IPTV subscriber base represented about 7% of the total base. InfoCom expects that by 2015, satellite TV will overtake CaTV in terms of TV households, with satellite platforms expected to total 52.4m compared to CaTV, expected to top to 47.6m, according to research firm InfoCom.

Renewed economic dynamism and multi-platform competition are fueling the consumption of pay-TV and broadband in Asia Pacific. However, this growth depends on investment in content, distribution and new technology, benefiting consumers but coming at a high cost for pay-TV channels and distributors, according to Asia Pacific Pay-TV & Broadband Markets 2011, a new report published by leading industry analysts Media Partners Asia (MPA). The result is margin pressure for pay-TV providers in some key markets, predominantly India, as well as potentially in Japan, Korea and Malaysia.

Dublin, May 11, 2011-At the end of 2010, Russia had 219.48mn mobile telephony customers, equivalent to a penetration rate of nearly 154.6%. In 2010, the Russian mobile subscriber base grew by 5.9%. After experiencing a return to positive subscriber growth in Q310, all four of Russia's leading network operators - Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), VimpelCom, MegaFon and Tele2 Russia - continued to experience positive growth in the final quarter of the year, acording to a recent report by BMI.

In 2011, the world’s annual data traffic volume will total almost 8,000 petabytes. That will grow at a CAGR of 50% over the following years, exceeding 60,000 petabytes in 2016 – over seven times more than in 2011. The year-on-year growth will be the fastest in 2012 (58%) and 2013 (56%), slightly slowing down thereafter, accoriding to ABI Research.

Driven by a pronounced change in marketing and promotion strategies as well as price declines and an increasing availability of content, worldwide shipments of 3-D TVs will catapult by a spectacular 463 percent to reach 23.4 million units in 2011, according to IHS iSuppli (NYSE: IHS) research.

The Chinese IPTV market is the most attractive and largest IPTV market in the Asia-Pacific region. It is also the third largest IPTV market at the global level. There is a sustained growth in the demand for IPTV service in China. Further, the networks are being continuously upgraded and there is a constant innovation of services, such as single-play to Triple-play. Deployment of IPTV in various key Chinese provinces as of now is on schedule with new launches anticipated in other smaller and less developed provinces.

The Nielsen Company announced the 2012 Advance/Preliminary TV Household Universe Estimate (UE) is 114.7 million, down from 115.9 million in 2011. Marking the first integration of the 2010 Census counts, the 2012 UEs reflect an aging population, as Baby Boomers increasingly shift out of the 35-49 demographic, as well as greater ethnic diversity.