Nearly a decade after the initial launch of the technology, the number of Internet protocol TV (IPTV) subscriptions worldwide has eclipsed 100 million.
According to research firm Point Topic, 4.6 million video-over-broadband subscriptions from telco and Internet service providers (but excluding cable companies) were added in the first quarter of this year, bringing the worldwide total to 100.9 million.
East Asia continued to grow the fastest in the IPTV area, adding 2.6 million subs. China remained the biggest IPTV territory, with 32.6 million total customers. The U.S. trails second place France (14.6 million) with 12.3 million IPTV subscribers.
Eastern Europe experienced the biggest growth rate on a percentage basis, expanding by nearly 12 percent with 630,000 new IPTV subscriptions.
The IPTV growth rate is in line with global pay TV expansion, which is currently around 5 percent.
The question now is whether IPTV will continue to grow. Several U.S. providers, for example, have exited the video market recently, ceding it to the flurry of competition from over-the-top service providers.
For example, as Light Reading noted last month, Colorado's Longmont Power & Communications elected not to make video a part of its new high-speed broadband service. "We see cable as a declining business," LPC general manager Tom Roiniotis said. "Customers can get all the content they want over the top."
For more:
- read this MediaPost story
- read this Light Reading story
Related links:
Cable and IPTV in the first quarter of 2014
CenturyLink adds 24K Prism IPTV subs, aims at 300K addressable homes in 2014
Fibe TV bolsters Bell Canada wireline business, with 54,680 subscriber adds